[Up-regulator of cell proliferation predicts poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma].

Objective: To explore the potential value of up-regulator of cell proliferation (URGCP) as a biomarker for predicting the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: The expression of URGCP was analyzed in 15 HCC cell lines and in 10 pairs of HCC and adjacent tissues with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. The expression of URGCP in 278 paraffin-embedded, archived clinical HCC samples was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and statistic analysis conducted to examine the relationship of prognosis and URGCP expression.

Results: IHC analysis revealed a high expression of URGCP in all HCC cell lines and in 122/278 (43.8%) paraffin-embedded archived HCC specimens. The expression level of URGCP was significantly correlated with clinical staging and poor patient survival of HCC in the study cohort and in various clinical subgroups, but not correlated with HCC patient age, tumor size, tumor number or alpha-fetoprotein level.

Conclusion: URGCP plays an important role in promoting the proliferation and tumorigenesis of HCC and may represent a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for the disease.