Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 14, 2022; 28(46): 6433-6477
Published online Dec 14, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i46.6433
Table 1 Molecular mechanisms associated with postoperative hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis and recurrence in this review
Molecular marker
Association with HCC metastasis and recurrence
Ref.
Oncogenes and tumor suppressors
Oncogens
H-rasIncreased expressionMa et al[9]
OPNIncreased expressionYu et al[22]; Zhu et al[25]
S100A9Increased expressionChiou and Lee[29]; Liao et al[31]
Tumor suppressors
Mutated p53Increased expressionNikolova et al[40]; Chaudhary et al[44]
Nm23Decreased expressionKhera et al[50]
KAI1Decreased or lost expressionXu et al[55]
Tumor microenvironment
Tumor stromal cells
Immune cells
T lymphocytesDecreased expressionCai et al[68]; Gabrielson et al[70]; Li et al[71]
NK cellsDecreased expressionWu et al[85]; Lee et al[90]
DCsDecreased expressionShi et al[108]
M2-TAMsIncreased expressionYao et al[128]; Park et al[133]; Liao et al[134]
MDSCsIncreased expressionKalathil and Thanavala[143]; Lu et al[147]
TregsIncreased expressionXiong et al[155]; Trehanpati and Vyas[159]
N2-TANsIncreased expressionZhou et al[172]; Yang et al[175]
HSCsIncreased expressionBarry et al[198]; Cheng et al[200]
CAFsIncreased expressionGao et al[217]; Zhang et al[220]
TECsIncreased expressionTahmasebi et al[236]; Dong et al[239]
ECM
Adhesion enhancement in tumor cell-ECM
ICAM-1Increased expressionChen et al[255]
E-CadherinDecreased or lost expressionRen et al[267]; He et al[269]
Integrins
Oncogenic integrinsIncreased expressionZhang et al[276]; Huang et al[279]
Tumor-suppressive integrinsDecreased expressionZhang et al[282]
Selectins
P-selectinIncreased expressionXu et al[288]
CD44V6Increased expressionChen et al[292]
ECM degradation
uPAIncreased expressionSong et al[293]
MMP-2 and MMP-9Increased expressionLiu et al[296]; Fu et al[297]
Cytokines
IFN-γDecreased expressionLi et al[302]
Interleukin
IL-6Increased expressionJiang et al[315]
IL-8Increased expressionZhang et al[327]
IL-1βIncreased expressionDuan et al[332]
TNF-αIncreased expressionHammam et al[338]
Chemokines
CCL2/CCR2 axisIncreased expressionAvila and Berasain[348]
CXCL12-CXCR4 axisIncreased expressionLi et al[355]
Growth factors
VEGFIncreased expressionZhang et al[365]
TGF-βIncreased expressionSun et al[375]
ExosomesIncreased expressionWatanabe and Tanaka[385]; Luo et al[404]
EMT
E-cadherinDecreased or lost expressionXu et al[413]; Helal et al[417]
N-cadherin and VimentinIncreased expressionXu et al[413]; Helal et al[417]
LCSCs
CD133Increased expressionLiu et al[363]
EpCAMIncreased expressionTsuchiya et al[435]; Krause et al[437]
CD90Increased expressionYamashita and Kaneko[440]; Hwang et al[441]
CTCsIncreased expressionSchulze et al[463]
Epigenetic modifications
DNA methylation
Tumor suppressorsHypermethylationHe et al[476]; Qian et al[478]
OncogenesHypomethylationZhou et al[479]; Chen et al[480]
Noncoding RNAs
LncRNAs
Oncogenic lncRNAsIncreased expressionShi et al[484]
Tumor-suppressive lncRNAsDecreased expressionSong and Qiu[486]
CircRNAs
Oncogenic circRNAsIncreased expressionGu et al[499]
Tumor-suppressive circRNAsDecreased expressionSun et al[501]
miRNAs
Tumor-suppressive miRNAsDecreased expressionYao et al[508]
Oncogenic miRNAsIncreased expressionWang et al[510]