Peng-Yuan Zhuang, Ju-Bo Zhang, Wei Zhang, Xiao-Dong Zhu, Ying Liang, Hua-Xiang Xu, Yu-Quan Xiong, Ling-Qun Kong, Lu Wang, Wei-Zhong Wu, Zhao-You Tang, Lun-Xiu Qin, and Hui-Chuan Sun
Purpose: To elucidate the effect of IFN-α treatment on tumor growth and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: IFN-α administration was conducted in nude mice using an orthotopic implantation model of human HCC, and the key molecular markers in the IFN-α treatment was detected by immunohistochemistry staining and PCR array. Results: Up to 12 weeks of IFN-α treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth of HCC, but relatively increased the number of circulating tumor cells, which might be due to the enhanced tumor hypoxia as well as up-regulation of metastasis-related genes, such as HIF-1α, c-met, u-PA, PDGF-A, and IL-8. However, IFN-α had no direct effect on migration and invasion of HCC cells. Conclusions: IFN-α has janus face of consistently suppressing HCC growth, however, promoting tumor metastasis capacity, which is of clinical indication for the scientific administration of IFN-α and the similar antiangiogenesis drugs for their dual effect on tumor growth and metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]