VCAN, expressed highly in hepatitis B virus-induced hepatocellular carcinoma, is a potential biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitors

doi:10.4251/wjgo.v14.i10.1933

Advanced Search

BPG is committed to discovery and dissemination of knowledge

Home / Archive / Volume 14, Issue 10

This Article

Academic Content and Language Evaluation of This Article

CrossCheck and Google Search of This Article

Academic Rules and Norms of This Article

Supplementary Materials of This Article

Citation of this article

Corresponding Author of This Article

Research Domain of This Article

Article-Type of This Article

Open-Access Policy of This Article

Times Cited Counts in Google of This Article

Number of Hits and Downloads for This Article

Total Article Views (5152)

All Articles published online

The chart showing PDF series, WORD series, HTML series, Figures (1-8) series, Tables (1-4) series.

Item

Count

PDF

189

WORD

HTML

2714

Figures (1-8)

325

Tables (1-4)

298

Sum=3570

Publishing Process of This Article

The chart showing Browse series, Download series.

Item

Count

Browse

341

Download

1241

Sum=1582

Oct 15, 2022 (publication date) through Mar 2, 2025

Times Cited of This Article

Times Cited (9)

Journal Information of This Article

Publication Name

World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology

ISSN

1948-5204

Publisher of This Article

Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

Basic Study

World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2022; 14(10): 1933-1948
Published online Oct 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i10.1933

Table 1 Correlation between VCAN expression and clinical characteristics in The Cancer Genome Atlas Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Characteristic	Low VCAN	High VCAN	P value
n	187	187
Age, n (%)			0.020
60	77 (20.6)	100 (26.8)
> 60	110 (29.5)	86 (23.1)
Gender, n (%)			0.015
Female	49 (13.1)	72 (19.3)
Male	138 (36.9)	115 (30.7)
Pathologic stage, n (%)			0.042
I & II	138 (39.4)	122 (34.8)
III & IV	41 (11.7)	45 (14.0)
Histologic grade, n (%)			0.090
G1	34 (9.2)	21 (5.7)
G2	88 (23.8)	90 (24.4)
G3	54 (14.6)	70 (19)
G4	8 (2.2)	4 (1.1)
AFP (ng/mL), median (IQR)	9 (3.5, 140)	23 (5, 419)	0.039

AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; IQR: Interquartile range.

Table 2 Clinical features and VCAN expression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B virus

Clinical feature	HCC (n = 50)	Liver cirrhosis (n = 50)	P value
Age	57.55 ± 1.80	54.05 ± 2.22	0.227
Sex (male/female)	8/32	30/10	0.705
Anti-virus treatment (yes/no)	26/14	20/20	0.337
HBeAg (+/-)	7/33	6/34	0.144
HBV-DNA (IU/mL): ≤ 10²/> 10²	22/18	11/29	0.100
Child-Pugh: A/B&C	28/17	8/32	0.168
VCAN mRNA (%)	4.45 ± 0.56	3.83 ± 0.61	0.147
VCAN methylation	0.056 ± 0.009	0.047 ± 0.005	0.022

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen.

Table 3 Correlation between VCAN mRNA expression and clinical features

Variable	VCAN RNA expression (median as cutoff)		P value
Variable	Low	High	P value
Age	56.60 ± 8.45	55.00 ± 9.82	0.552
Male/female	39/11	38/12	0.705
Anti-viral treatment/no treatment	23/27	35/15	0.110
HBeAg (+)/(-)	21/29	5/45	0.028
HBV-DNA (IU/mL): ≤ 10²/> 10²	13/37	34/16	0.025
Child-Pugh: A/B&C	35/15	31/19	0.490
AFP (ng/mL)	11.59 (3.47, 135.68)	21.43 (1.84, 210.88)	0.698
Total bilirubin (μmol/L)	26.37 (18.70, 50.25)	16.26 (11.47, 29.14)	0.035
Direct bilirubin (μmol/L)	8.44 (6.64, 27.92)	5.28 (3.51, 13.96)	0.043
Indirect bilirubin (μmol/L)	17.21 (12.23, 22.83)	10.51 (6.78, 13.39)	0.007
Total cholesterol (mmol/L)	2.90 ± 0.82	3.56 ± 0.81	0.015
LDL-C (mmol/L)	1.74 ± 0.59	2.25 ± 0.59	0.009
WBC (× 10⁹/L)	3.54 ± 1.40	6.12 ± 2.40	< 0.001
Neutrophil (%)	58.69 ± 13.24	57.31 ± 14.48	0.302
Platelet (× 10⁹/L)	76.60 ± 49.14	172.6 ± 87.01	< 0.001
Prothrombin time (s)	11.85 (10.85, 15.55)	11.15 (10.43, 11.83)	0.030
Prothrombin activity (%)	75.64 ± 21.15	89.37 ± 12.74	0.018
Fibrinogen (mg/dL)	186.00 ± 49.53	267.55 ± 111.17	0.006

LDL-C: Low density lipoprotein cholesterol; WBC: White blood cells; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein.

Table 4 Top 20 gene enrichment sets of highly expressed VCAN

Name	Size	ES	NES	NOM P value	FDR Q value
KEGG_FC_GAMMA_R_MEDIATED_PHAGOCYTOSIS	96	-0.739	-2.154	< 0.001	5.13E-04
KEGG_PATHOGENIC_ESCHERICHIA_COLI_INFECTION	56	-0.720	-2.046	< 0.001	5.91E-04
KEGG_ECM_RECEPTOR_INTERACTION	84	-0.716	-2.162	< 0.001	8.55E-04
KEGG_AXON_GUIDANCE	129	-0.695	-2.191	< 0.001	0.0015376
KEGG_DILATED_CARDIOMYOPATHY	90	-0.680	-2.112	< 0.001	4.91E-04
KEGG_APOPTOSIS	87	-0.678	-2.042	< 0.001	6.26E-04
KEGG_CHEMOKINE_SIGNALING_PATHWAY	188	-0.678	-2.127	< 0.001	3.83E-04
KEGG_LEUKOCYTE_TRANSENDOTHELIAL_MIGRATION	116	-0.677	-2.187	< 0.001	7.69E-04
KEGG_FOCAL_ADHESION	199	-0.675	-2.148	< 0.001	4.28E-04
KEGG_HYPERTROPHIC_CARDIOMYOPATHY_HCM	83	-0.673	-2.128	< 0.001	4.30E-04
KEGG_CELL_ADHESION_MOLECULES_CAMS	131	-0.663	-2.076	< 0.001	7.01E-04
KEGG_REGULATION_OF_ACTIN_CYTOSKELETON	213	-0.659	-2.158	< 0.001	6.42E-04
KEGG_GAP_JUNCTION	90	-0.656	-2.052	< 0.001	6.23E-04
KEGG_ENDOCYTOSIS	181	-0.656	-2.084	< 0.001	8.02E-04
KEGG_MELANOGENESIS	101	-0.630	-2.129	< 0.001	4.92E-04
KEGG_VASCULAR_SMOOTH_MUSCLE_CONTRACTION	114	-0.629	-2.097	< 0.001	7.21E-04
KEGG_CYTOKINE_CYTOKINE_RECEPTOR_INTERACTION	264	-0.625	-2.119	< 0.001	3.44E-04
KEGG_PATHWAYS_IN_CANCER	325	-0.621	-2.111	< 0.001	4.50E-04
KEGG_MAPK_SIGNALING_PATHWAY	267	-0.602	-2.080	< 0.001	7.48E-04
KEGG_CALCIUM_SIGNALING_PATHWAY	177	-0.582	-2.057	< 0.001	6.60E-04

ES: Enrichment score; NES: Normalized enrichment score; NOM: Nominal; FDR: False discovery rate; KEEG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes.

Citation: Wang MQ, Li YP, Xu M, Tian Y, Wu Y, Zhang X, Shi JJ, Dang SS, Jia XL. VCAN, expressed highly in hepatitis B virus-induced hepatocellular carcinoma, is a potential biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitors. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2022; 14(10): 1933-1948
URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/1948-5204/full/v14/i10/1933.htm
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4251/wjgo.v14.i10.1933