expression is associated with the diagnosis and early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma.

is a 470 bp transcript of the gene, which belongs to the cancer-testis antigens that exhibit a restricted pattern of expression in normal tissues. Recently, the expression of has been shown to be frequent in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. To investigate the role of in HCC diagnosis and postoperative evaluation, the expression level of was first examined in the tissue and peripheral blood of HCC patients and controls by using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Subsequently, the associations between and the clinical variables were assessed using χ or Kaplan-Meier tests. The data showed that HCC tissues had increased expression when compared to paired non-tumorous tissues. The blood samples from the HCC patients showed upregulated mRNA, as compared to non-HCC patients. The patients with portal vein tumor thrombus or higher tumor-node metastasis stages (II~IV) were more likely to have increased levels of mRNA. Furthermore, the 1-year recurrence rate of the patients with a high level of mRNA was significantly greater compared to the patients with a low level. All these findings indicate that is associated with the aggressive biological behavior of HCC cells and it may be a potential biomarker for HCC diagnosis and prognosis.