Prognostic and predicted significance of Ubqln2 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant cancer and the third leading cause of death worldwide. The molecular mechanism of HCC remains unclear. Recent studies have demonstrated that the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is associated with HCC.

Neuron-glial antigen 2 overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma predicts poor prognosis.

Aim: To investigate whether neuron-glial antigen 2 (NG2) could be an effective prognostic marker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: NG2 expression was semi-quantitatively scored from the immunohistochemistry (IHC) data based on the number of positive cells and the staining intensity. A total of 132 HCC specimens and 96 adjacent noncancerous tissue samples were analyzed by IHC for NG2 protein expression.