HOXD10 expression as a prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma treated with curative resection

HOXD10 downregulation resulting from epigenetic changesas well as its role as a tumor suppressor have been reported in several cancers including hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). However, the prognostic role of HOXD10 expression in HCC tissue samples has not been evaluated.

HOXD10 expression was investigated in 278 curatively resected HCC samples using immunohistochemistry and its effectiveness in predicting patient outcome was analyzed.

Low expression of HOXD10 was observed in 82.7% of HCC samples, and this was associated with increased age, large tumor size and advanced stage.HOXD10 was an independent predictive factor for early tumor recurrence at less than 2 years. Patients with low HOXD10 expression showed shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p=0.024) and disease-specific survival (DSS) (p=0.016) than those with high expression. Multivariate analysis confirmed that low HOXD10 expression was an independent predictor of shorter RFS (hazard ratio 1.873, p=0.006) and DSS (hazard ratio2.504, p=0.012) than high HOXD10 expression.

The present study provides clinical evidence supporting the use of HOXD10 as a prognostic biomarker in curatively resected HCCs, and suggests that HOXD10 could also be a potential therapeutic target in HCC.