Brief Articles
Copyright ©2009 The WJG Press and Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2009; 15(33): 4177-4182
Published online Sep 7, 2009. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.4177
Overexpression of polo-like kinase1 predicts a poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients
Zi-Li He, He Zheng, Hui Lin, Xiong-Ying Miao, De-Wu Zhong
Zi-Li He, He Zheng, Hui Lin, Xiong-Ying Miao, De-Wu Zhong, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Xiangya Second Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
Author contributions: He ZL and Zhong DW designed research; He ZL, Zheng H, Lin H, Miao XY and Zhong DW performed research; He ZL, Miao XY and Zhong DW contributed new reagents/analytic tools; He ZL and Zheng H analyzed data; He ZL wrote the paper.
Correspondence to: De-Wu Zhong, MD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Xiangya Second Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China. dewuzhong@163.com
Telephone: +86-731-58688558 Fax: +86-731-58264936
Received: June 6, 2009
Revised: August 5, 2009
Accepted: August 12, 2009
Published online: September 7, 2009
Abstract

AIM: To elucidate the role of overexpressed polo-like kinase1 (PLK1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

METHODS: We prospectively collected clinicopathological, immunohistochemical and semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) data from 135 HCC patients undergoing successful hepatectomy. The correlations between PLK1 mRNA expression and clinicopathologic variables were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test. Prognostic factors were identified by univariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS: Immunohistochemical results showed overexpression of PLK1 was mainly found in tumor tissues compared with tumor-free tissue. A similar mRNA result was obtained by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. A total of 111 samples were positive for PLK1 mRNA expression. The positive expression was correlated with venous invasion, tumor nodules and Edmondson grade. Furthermore, 1, 3, 5-year survival rates in the positive expression group were significantly lower than the negative control group. Multivariate analysis showed that positive PLK1 expression was an independent risk factor for HCC.

CONCLUSION: PLK1 could be a potential biomarker for diagnosis and therapy for HCC.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Immunohistochemistry, Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Survival analysis, Polo-like kinase 1