Glyoxylate reductase/hydroxypyruvate reductase: a novel prognostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma patients after curative resection.

Objective: Glyoxylate reductase/hydroxypyruvate reductase (GRHPR) is a key enzyme in the glyoxylate cycle. Its deficiency causes primary hyperoxaluria type 2. We first noticed that GRHPR was also lost in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and proliferative HCC cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential clinical utility of GRHPR in HCC.

Methods: The expression of GRHPR in tissues and cells was detected by Western blotting. Immunohistochemistry was utilized to examine the expression patterns of GRHPR and Ki-67 in a surgical cohort of HCC and adjacent liver tissues.

Results: We demonstrated that GRHPR showed a lower expression in tumor tissues than in nontumoral tissues. GRHPR was negatively correlated with Ki-67 (R(2) = 0.771, p < 0.05) and GRHPR was reduced in proliferative Huh7 cells (p < 0.05). Patients with negative GRHPR both in tumor tissues and nontumoral tissues had a significantly shorter survival time than those with positive GRHPR (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis established that GRHPR was detected in nontumoral tissues as an independent prognostic factor for patients with HCC.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the GRHPR defect in noncancerous tissues may represent an independent predictor of poor survival for HCC patients after curative resection and that there may be a link between GRHPR and prognosis of HCC patients.