Expression and clinical significance of CD24 in preoperative peripheral blood and cancerous tissues of hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing liver transplantation / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the relationship between CD24 expression in preoperative peripheral blood as well as cancer tissue and clinical parameters and prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT).Methods:From November 2018 to November 2019, clinical data were collected for 65 HCC patients and 41 patients with benign liver disease.The preoperative peripheral blood level of CD24 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the expression of CD24 in cancerous foci and adjacent tissues examined by immunohistochemistry.Kaplan-Meier survival curves of differential CD24 expression were plotted and survival differences compared by Log-rank method.One-way ANOVA was utilized for examining the relationship between the expression level of CD24 and various clinicopathological parameters and multivariate Cox analysis for screening independent risk factors affecting patient prognosis.Results:The concentration of CD24 in preoperative peripheral blood (p-CD24) of HCC patients (6.51±2.33 μg/L) was significantly higher than that of patients with benign liver disease (4.10±0.91) μg/L, P<0.05.The positive rate of CD24 was obviously higher in cancerous tissues than that in adjacent tissues (87.7% vs. 4.6%, P<0.05). The peripheral blood level of CD24 was positively correlated with the expression intensity of CD24 in tumor tissues (t-CD24, r=0.570, P<0.001). The expression of CD24 (both in blood and cancer foci) was significantly correlated with preoperative level of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), maximal tumor diameter, microvascular invasion, portal vein tumor thrombus, vessel carcinoma embolus and satellite focus ( P<0.05). The expression of CD24 in patients exceeding the Milan/UCSF criteria was higher than those fulfilling the criteria ( P<0.005). Patients with a higher expression of CD24 had worse overall survival and recurrence-free survival rates as compared to those a lower expression of CD24 ( P<0.05). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that t-CD24 [OS: HR=3.661(1.005-13.333)], P=0.049; recurrence-free survival (RFS): [HR=4.331(1.887-9.942), P=0.001] and preoperative level of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) [OS: HR=4.900(1.590-15.097), P=0.006]; RFS: [HR=3.414(1.614-7.221), P=0.001] were independent risk factors for overall survival and recurrence-free survival in HCC patients undergoing LT. Conclusions:The preoperative peripheral blood level of CD24 in HCC patients undergoing LT indirectly reflects the expression of CD24 in cancerous tissues to a certain extent.And the expression of CD24 in cancerous tissue is one of the independent risk factors affecting OS and RFS of LT patients.