Elevated GSK3β expression predicts good prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The role of GSK-3β in cancer progression is considered critical. However, the prognostic value of total GSK-3β protein levels in HCC remains undetermined. In this study, the expression and biologic significance of total GSK-3β in HCC were evaluated at mRNA and protein levels. We showed that GSK-3β mRNA levels were significantly upregulated in HCC tissues relative to the levels in the adjacent non-tumor tissues as recorded on the TCGA database (P < 0.001). Notably, GSK-3β protein levels were significantly downregulated in HCC tissues relative to those in the adjacent non-tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry (P < 0.001). We found that GSK-3β was negatively associated with the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage (P = 0.030) and positively correlated with good prognosis for HCC patients (P = 0.036). The data further indicated that GSK3β expression tended to be an independent prognostic marker for HCC after surgical resection (HR = 1.658, 95% CI 0.945-2.909, P = 0.078) and can potentially serve as a biomarker for the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.