Influence of serum heat shock protein 90α on the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after transarterial chemoembolization / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the influence of preoperative serum heat shock protein 90α (HSP90α) level on the survival time of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated by transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 97 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who received TACE alone in Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, from January 1, 2019 to June 1, 2020. With the median of serum HSP90α level as the cut-off value, the patients were divided into high-level group with 48 patients (HSP90α > 135 ng/L) and low-level group with 49 patients (HSP90α ≤135 ng/L). The chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the median survival time, and the log-rank test was used for comparison between groups. The log-rank univariate analysis and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to explore the influencing factors for the survival time of patients after surgery. Results There were significant differences between the high-level group and the low-level group in Child-Pugh class ( χ 2 =19.356, P <0.01), tumor necrosis ( χ 2 =9.964, P =0.002), BCLC staging ( χ 2 =22.356, P <0.01), and ECOG score ( χ 2 =6.644, P <0.05). The high-level group had a significantly shorter median survival time than the low-level group ( χ 2 =15.551, P <0.01). HSP90α level (hazard ratio [ HR ]=1.690, P <0.05) and BCLC staging ( HR =2.373, P <0.05) were independent influencing factors for the survival time of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after TACE. Conclusion Preoperative serum HSP90α level is an independent influencing factor for the survival time of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after TACE, and it is expected to become one of the potential indicators for evaluating the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated by TACE.