Tissue microarray-based study of hepatocellular carcinoma validating SPIB as potential clinical prognostic marker

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Molecular Biology
• Biomarker Research

Background:

• The prognostic value of SPIB protein in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains largely undetermined.
• Understanding SPIB's role is crucial for developing new prognostic tools for HCC patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate SPIB protein expression levels in human HCC.
• To correlate SPIB expression with clinicopathological features and patient survival outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Immunohistochemical staining was employed on multi-tissue microarrays to detect SPIB protein expression.
• The SurvExpress online tool was utilized to analyze the association between SPIB mRNA expression and patient survival, including relapse-free survival (RFS).

Main Results:

• SPIB protein was significantly overexpressed in colon, liver, and stomach tumors compared to non-tumor tissues (p<0.05).
• HCC tissues exhibited significantly higher SPIB overexpression than normal samples (p<0.001).
• SPIB expression levels varied significantly across different stages of HCC (I, II, III; p<0.05) and correlated with patient age (p=0.046) and histological grade (p=0.027).
• High SPIB and KI-67 mRNA expression were linked to poor survival in HCC patients (p<0.05).

Conclusions:

• SPIB protein overexpression is a significant finding in HCC.
• The combined expression of SPIB and KI-67 may indicate a poor prognosis and could serve as a novel clinical prognostic indicator for HCC.
• This study reports for the first time the association between SPIB/KI-67 cross-talk and HCC prognosis.