Search

Background: In this retrospective study, we investigated clinicopathological features and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients applying an immunosubtyping method based on the serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels and glypican-3 (GPC3) immunohistochemical expression., Methods: Two hundred and twenty-nine HCC patients, who had been subjected to hepatectomy and accepted serum AFP and GPC immunohistochemical expression tests, were divided into four groups: AFP + GPC3 + , AFP + GPC3 - , AFP - GPC3 + , and AFP - GPC3 - groups. During the study, HCC patients' sex ratios, ages, incidence of cirrhosis, clinicopathological features-such as tumor lesion, tumor size, histological grade, vascular invasion, regional lymph node involvement, distant metastasis-and their follow-up time were observed and continuously recorded., Results: Regarding their clinicopathological features, the four groups only differed in the histological grade with statistical significance. Furthermore, the four subtypes showed statistically significant differences in sex ratios and incidence of cirrhosis. Among the four subtypes, the prognosis was just statistically different between the AFP + GPC3 + and AFP - GPC3 + groups, and AFP - GPC3 + was associated with a better prognosis., Conclusions: A new HCC subtype could guide the personalized therapy of HCC patients to a certain extent. The four different subtypes resulting from the AFP- and GPC3-based subclassification of HCC, especially for AFP + GPC3 + and AFP - GPC3 - groups, were meaningful prognostic markers for HCC., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr-19-1803). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2020 Translational Cancer Research. All rights reserved.)

Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate the diagnostic value of glypican-3 (GPC3), arginase-1 (Arg-1), and hepatocyte paraffin antigen 1 (HepPar-1) in differentiating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC)., Methods: The expression of GPC3, HepPar-1 and Arg-1 were measured by immunohistochemistry in 47 cases of HCC, 29 cases of ICC and their paracancerous tissues., Results: A high expression of GPC3, Arg-1 and HepPar-1 was observed in HCC tissues (68.09%, 76.60% and 78.72%, respectively; P>0.0125) while it was lower in ICC tissues (6.90%, 6.90% and 13.79%, respectively; P>0.0125). With regard to specificity, GPC3 performed better than Arg-1 and HepPar-1 (97.37% vs. 1.32% and 2.63%, respectively; P<0.05). The positive rate in poorly differentiated HCC for either GPC3, Arg-1 or HepPar-1 was lower than that in well- and moderately differentiated HCC. The majority of positive samples for GPC3 and Arg-1 were grade 2+ in well-, moderately- or poorly-differentiated HCC. Combined detection of GPC3, Arg-1 and HepPar-1 could increase the sensitivity up to 89.36% and the specificity to 100.00%, comparing with any single biomarker (P<0.05)., Conclusions: GPC3, Arg-1 and HepPar-1 were all useful biomarkers in differentiating HCC from ICC. The combination models could improve the diagnosis value of HCC and help differentiating HCC from ICC., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr.2019.11.20). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2020 Translational Cancer Research. All rights reserved.)