Abstract:

Objective   To detect the expression of erythropoietin （EPO） and erythropoietin receptor （EPOR） in hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） tissues and analyze their predictive value on the prognosis of HCC patients. Methods   Immunohistochemistry technique was used to detect the expression of EPO and EPOR in 96 cases of HCC tissues and 11 cases of normal liver tissues. The difference of the expression of the two proteins in two tissues and the correlation of the expression of the two proteins were analyzed. Also， the relationship of the two proteins with clinicopathological features and prognosis of HCC patients were analyzed. Results  The high expression rates of EPO and EPOR were 49.0％and 46.9％ in 96 cases of HCC tissues， higher than 0 and 0 in normal liver tissues. The expression of EPO was positively associated with that of EPOR（r=0.207， P＜0.05）. The expression of both EPO and EPOR was associated with Edmondson-Steiner histological grade（P＜0.05）. The 1-，3- and 5-year disease free survival rates were 76.2％，42.1％ and 16.5％ in low EPOR expression group， significantly higher than 55.6％， 14.0％ and 7.8％ in high EPOR expression group （P＜0.05）. Similarly， the 1-，3- and 5-year overall survival rates in low EPOR expression group were 88.0％， 76.0％ and 46.1％， significantly higher than 80.0％， 43.6％ and 26.8％ in high EPOR expression group（P＜0.05）. Multivariate analysis revealed that satellite nodules， the expression of EPOR were independent risk factors of disease free survival（P＜0.05）， and satellite nodules， vascular invasion and the expression of EPOR were independent risk factors of overall survival（P＜0.05）. Conclusion  The expression of EPOR is correlated with disease free survival and overall survival of HCC patients， and maybe a prognosis biomarker of HCC.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC）, Erythropoietin（EPO）, Erythropoietin receptor （EPOR）