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YAP and TAZ Heterogeneity in Primary Liver Cancer: An Analysis of Its Prognostic and Diagnostic Role
- Source :
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Vol 20, Iss 3, p 638 (2019)
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Primary liver cancer comprises a diverse group of liver tumors. The heterogeneity of these tumors is seen as one of the obstacles to finding an effective therapy. The Hippo pathway, with its downstream transcriptional co-activator Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ), has a decisive role in the carcinogenesis of primary liver cancer. Therefore, we examined the expression pattern of YAP and TAZ in 141 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma keratin 19 positive (HCC K19+), hepatocellular carcinoma keratin 19 negative (HCC K19−), combined hepatocellular⁻cholangiocarcinoma carcinoma (cHCC-CCA), or cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). All cHCC-CCA and CCA patients showed high expression levels for YAP and TAZ, while only some patients of the HCC group were positive. Notably, we found that a histoscore of both markers is useful in the challenging diagnosis of cHCC-CCA. In addition, positivity for YAP and TAZ was observed in the hepatocellular and cholangiocellular components of cHCC-CCA, which suggests a single cell origin in cHCC-CCA. Within the K19− HCC group, our results demonstrate that the expression of YAP is a statistically significant predictor of poor prognosis when observed in the cytoplasm. Nuclear expression of TAZ is an even more specific and independent predictor of poor disease-free survival and overall survival of K19− HCC patients. Our results thus identify different levels of YAP/TAZ expression in various liver cancers that can be used for diagnostics.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14220067
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.8f505ec69e11441aa97db28902c1be84
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20030638