Prognostic significance of osteopontin in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma☆

Abstract Background and aims Osteopontin (OPN) is known to be associated with metastasis in many types of cancers. Since OPN is a highly phosphorylated and glycosylated protein, the modification after transcription is very important to its function. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the elevated expression of OPN at mRNA levels and its relationship with metastasis and poorer prognosis of the patients have been reported. However, the prognostic impact of OPN at protein levels on the patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC after hepatectomy is still limited. Patients and methods The expression of OPN was examined at protein level by using immunohistochemistry in 72 patients who underwent hepatectomy for HBV-related HCC, and its prognostic significance in disease-free and overall survival of the patients was also analyzed by log-rank test and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results Thirty-nine of 72 (54.17%) HBV-related HCC specimens were positive for OPN with cytoplasmic staining. OPN was highly expressed in the specimens with capsular infiltration compared to those without ( P P P P P P  = 0.01) and OS ( P  = 0.014). Conclusions OPN over-expression was closely related to capsular infiltration, venous invasion, lymph node metastasis, and also with worse prognosis, suggesting that OPN might be deemed as a useful molecular marker for predicting the prognosis of HCC.