Microtubule-Associated Protein 4 Overexpression Correlates with Early Recurrence in Hepatitis B Virus-Associated...

This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of MAP4 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), particularly its association with metastasis-related early recurrence after curative hepatic resection.

We enrolled 172 patients with hepatitis B virus-associated HCC (HBV-HCC) who underwent curative resection in our cohort. After excluding potential confounders such as vascular invasion and portal vein thrombosis, 101 patients were selected for MAP4 gene expression analysis by qRT-PCR. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were conducted to evaluate its association with early recurrence and prognostic factors. Our findings were further validated in an independent cohort.

MAP4 expression was upregulated in HCC cell lines and tumor tissues, compared to their corresponding non-tumorous controls. The clinical analysis showed that high MAP4 overexpression in liver tumor tissues was positively correlated with early (p = 0.042) rather than late recurrence (p = 0.221) in our cohort. Moreover, it was linked to shorter recurrence-free survival (p = 0.023) and reduced overall survival (p = 0.015). The expression level of serum alpha-fetoprotein (p = 0.001), tumor size (p = 0.012), tumor number (p = 0.018), satellite tumor (p = 0.001), and MAP4 expression (p = 0.042) were correlated with HCC early recurrence by univariate analysis. Consistent clinical findings were observed in the validation cohort.

This study demonstrated that MAP4 overexpression in liver tumor tissue was positively correlated with early recurrence in HBV-HCC patients following curative hepatic resection, providing insights into its clinical significance and potential involvement in underlying molecular mechanisms, particularly in metastasis-related early recurrence.