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Prognostic significance of BMP7 as an oncogene in hepatocellular carcinoma

  • Research Article
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Tumor Biology

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the association between BMP7 tissue expression and patient prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expression of BMP7 mRNA in HCC was characterized using real-time PCR and 30 pairs of fresh frozen HCC tissues and corresponding noncancerous tissues. BMP7 protein expression in HCC was confirmed using immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray chip. Finally, BMP7 expression was correlated with conventional clinicopathological features of HCC and patient outcome. The expression of BMP7 mRNA and protein in HCC cells was much higher than in normal hepatic cells. Our results showed that the high expression of BMP7 in HCC was related to tumor size (p < 0.001), histological differentiation (p = 0.041), serum AFP (p = 0.007), and tumor stage (p < 0.001). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that a high-expression level of BMP7 resulted in a significantly poor prognosis of HCC patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that BMP7 expression level was an independent prognostic parameter for the overall survival rate of HCC patients. These findings provide evidence that a high-expression level of BMP7 serves as a biomarker for poor prognosis for HCC. Thus, we speculate that BMP7 may be a potential target of antiangiogenic therapy for HCC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Liver and Biliary Surgery, The First People’s Hospital of Lianyungang, Lianyungang, 222002, Jiangsu Province, China

    Wei Li, Xu-Ming Ge, Kai Li & Wei-Dong Xu

  2. Department of Medical Technology, Yancheng Health Vocational and Technical College, No. 263, Jiefang South Rd, Yancheng, 224006, Jiangsu Province, China

    Hong-Xin Cai & Wei-Hong Shi

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  1. Wei Li
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  2. Hong-Xin Cai
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  3. Xu-Ming Ge
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  4. Kai Li
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  5. Wei-Dong Xu
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Correspondence to Wei-Hong Shi.

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Wei Li and Hong-Xin Cai contributed equally to this paper.

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Li, W., Cai, HX., Ge, XM. et al. Prognostic significance of BMP7 as an oncogene in hepatocellular carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 34, 669–674 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-012-0594-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-012-0594-x

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