Cell Cycle Genes Are Potential Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Background: The cell cycle pathway genes are comprised of 113 members which are critical to the maintenance of cell cycle and survival of tumor cells. This study was performed to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic values of cell cycle gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients.

Methods: Clinical features and cell cycle pathway gene expression data were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were determined by the student -test between HCC and noncancerous samples. Kaplan-Meier survival, univariate, and multivariate survival analyses and validation analysis were performed to characterize the associations between cell cycle gene expression and patients' overall survival and recurrence-free survival.

Results: 47 and 5 genes were significantly upregulated and downregulated genes in HCC samples, respectively. The high expression of , , and was associated with increased mortality (adjusted value = 0.04, odds ratio (OR): 1.89 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-3.46); adjusted value = 0.02, OR: 2.06 (95% CI:1.15-3.75); and adjusted value = 0.04, OR: 1.84 (%95 CI: 1.03-3.32), respectively). The expression of and was significantly associated with cancer recurrence (adjusted value = 0.01, OR: 2.17 (95% CI: 1.24-3.86); adjusted value = 0.03, OR: 1.88[95% CI:1.08-3.28], respectively), while the low expression of was associated with cancer recurrence (adjusted value = 0.03, OR: 0.53 (%95 CI: 0.3-0.93)).

Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that , , and may serve as a prognostic biomarker for HCC patients. , , and expression is a major factor affecting the recurrence of HCC patients.