FRZB up-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma bone metastasis

The clinical relevance of frizzled-related protein (FRZB) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) bone metastasis remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical relationship of FRZB in patients with HCC bone metastasis after surgical resection. FRZB expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) HCC and paired bone metastasis tissues from 13 patients that underwent surgical resection. The clinical characteristics of 13 HCC patients with synchronous or metachronous bone metastasis received surgery were retrospectively reviewed. We found that FRZB was positive in 9 HCC tissues (69.2%) and in 11 paired bone metastatic tissues (84.6%) among these 13 paired samples. The expression of FRZB in the bone metastases was noticeably higher than that in the paired HCC tissues. The expression of FRZB was up-regulated in 10 (76.9%) paired bone metastases tissues. FRZB expression was up-regulated in HCC bone metastasis tissue, which suggested that FRZB might play a key role in the HCC bone metastasis.