¹Centre for the Study of Liver Disease and Departments of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, L9-55, Faculty of Medicine Building, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China

Correspondence: Dr K Man, E-mail: kwanman@hkucc.hku.hk

Received 7 June 2006; Revised 31 August 2006; Accepted 31 August 2006; Published online 26 September 2006.

Abstract

Tumour recurrence and metastases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatectomy are the major obstacles of long-term survival. The present study investigated the clinicopathological significance of a possible metastasis regulator Six1 in HCC patients who were undergone hepatectomy. Seventy-two pairs of RNA and 103 pairs of protein from tumour and adjacent nontumour liver tissues of HCC patients were examined. About 85 and 60% of HCC tumour tissues were found to overexpress Six1 mRNA and protein, respectively, compared with nontumour liver tissues. No Six1 protein was detected in HCC nontumour liver tissues and normal liver tissues. Increased Six1 protein expression in HCC patients was significantly correlated with pathologic tumour-node-metastasis (pTNM) stage (P=0.002), venous infiltration (P=0.004) and poor overall survival (P=0.0423). We concluded that Six1 is frequently overexpressed in HCC patients and elevated Six1 protein in HCC patients may be an indication of advanced stage and poor overall survival after hepatectomy.