[Expression of SOX4 gene and early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma: their relationship and the clinical significance].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: T To explore the relationship between the expression of SOX4 gene and early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative resection. METHODS: SOX4 expression was detected immunohistochemically in 60 HCC patients including 30 with and 30 without early recurrence after curative resection, with 30 normal liver specimens as the control. RESULTS: The expression of SOX4 was significantly higher in HCC than in normal liver (41.7% vs 16.7%, P<0.05), and in HCC tissues, the expression was significantly higher in early recurrent HCC after curative resection than in HCC without early recurrence (56.7% vs 26.7%, P<0.05). SOX4 expression was inversely correlated to the patients' gender, age, tumor size, HBsAg, and Edmonson grade (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: SOX4 is closely associated with early recurrence of HCC after curative resection, and its overexpression may contribute to early recurrence of HCC. SOX4 may serve as a new molecular indicator for evaluating the prognosis of HCC.