Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2015; 21(13): 3960-3969
Published online Apr 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i13.3960
Methylation of IRAK3 is a novel prognostic marker in hepatocellular carcinoma
Chih-Chi Kuo, Yu-Lueng Shih, Her-Young Su, Ming-De Yan, Chung-Bao Hsieh, Chin-Yu Liu, Wei-Ting Huang, Mu-Hsien Yu, Ya-Wen Lin
Chih-Chi Kuo, Ya-Wen Lin, Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Yu-Lueng Shih, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Her-Young Su, Mu-Hsien Yu, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Ming-De Yan, Cancer Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 116, Taiwan
Chung-Bao Hsieh, Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Chin-Yu Liu, Department of Nutritional Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City 242, Taiwan
Wei-Ting Huang, Ya-Wen Lin, Department and Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Ya-Wen Lin, Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Author contributions: Kuo CC, Shih YL and Huang WT performed the majority of experiments; Shih YL, Su HY, Yan MD, Hsieh CB, Liu CY and Yu MH provided vital reagents and analytical tools and also helped to edit the manuscript; Shih YL, Hsieh CB and Yu MH coordinated and provided the collection of all the human material and also provided financial support for this work; Kuo CC and Lin YW designed the study and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by National Science Council, No. NSC 102-2320-B-016-016-MY3, Taiwan; and the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation, Taiwan.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Tri-Service General Hospital and TLCN User Committee.
Informed consent: Not applicable. This is a delinked tissue bank of Taiwan. Researchers can apply samples for study after the approval of TLCN User Committee and Institutional Review Board of the Tri-Service General Hospital.
Conflict-of-interest: A conflict-of-interest statement is included in the manuscript.
Data sharing: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ya-Wen Lin, PhD, Department and Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, No. 161, Section 6, Min-Chuan East Road, Taipei 114, Taiwan. ndmc.yawen@msa.hinet.net
Telephone: +886-2-87917654 Fax: +886-2-87917654
Received: September 3, 2014
Peer-review started: September 4, 2014
First decision: September 27, 2014
Revised: November 7, 2014
Accepted: December 14, 2014
Article in press: December 16, 2014
Published online: April 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: The methylation biomarker is relatively stable in tissue samples and body fluids, suggesting that it is a good tool for the detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and even therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our study not only demonstrated frequent methylation of interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 3 (IRAK3) and GLOXD1 in HCC but also found that IRAK3 methylation was positively associated with poor 3-year disease-free survival of patients. This indicates that IRAK3 methylation could be used as a potential biomarker for prediction of prognosis in HCC.