Lrig1 is a positive prognostic marker in hepatocellular carcinoma

The prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasing worldwide. As a consequence, there is an urgent need for identifying molecular markers of HCC development and progression. Recently, several studies have suggested that the Lrig1 may have prognostic implications in various cancer types, but its clinical value in HCC is not well evaluated.

In this study, the expression level of Lrig1 was examined in 133 HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, potential associations between Lrig1 expression and the carcinoma clinical parameters were investigated, including recurrence and survival rate. We silenced the Lrig1 in the normal liver cell line (LO2) and liver cancer cell line (Hep-G2) in vitro by the small interference RNA and detected its influence on proliferation, migration, and invasion.

The expression of Lrig1 was significantly downregulated in liver cancer tissues and cell lines, and its expression levels were related to tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis staging and tumor recurrence. Furthermore, analysis of 6-year survival of 133 HCC patients showed that those with stronger Lrig1 expression had significantly longer overall survival time than those with weaker Lrig1 expression. In addition, decreased expression of Lrig1 in vitro promoted the growth, migration, or invasion of normal liver cells and cancer cells.

Our findings demonstrate that Lrig1 could serve as a potential marker in the prognosis of patients with HCC. We also revealed that Lrig1 might be involved in the metastatic progression of liver cancer. However, its clinical value should be further investigated in the future.