Expression of programmed death receptor ligand 2 protein in hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the expression of programmed death receptor ligand 2 (PD-L2) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its relationship with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients.Methods:The data of 344 patients with HCC who underwent surgery in the Third People's Hospital of Nantong from January 2008 to December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Taking HCC tissue samples to make the tissue microarray, and the expression of PD-L2 protein was detected by immunohistochemical method. The relationship between PD-L2 protein expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients, and the prognostic factors were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model.Results:The positive expression rate of PD-L2 protein in 344 patients with HCC was 54.4% (187/344). The positive expression of PD-L2 protein was correlated with maximum tumor diameter >3 cm ( χ2 = 8.20, P < 0.01) and high histological grade ( χ2 = 9.46, P < 0.05); OS and DFS in PD-L2 positive expression group were worse than those in PD-L2 negative expression group (OS P = 0.001; DFS P = 0.015). PD-L2 positive expression was not an independent adverse influencing factor for OS and DFS (OS HR = 1.321, 95% CI 0.955-1.829, P = 0.093; DFS HR = 1.209, 95% CI 0.990-1.624, P = 0.209). Conclusions:PD-L2 is highly expressed in HCC tissues, which may be related to the degree of malignancy. PD-L2 is not an independent risk factor for the prognosis of HCC.