Expression and Prognostic Value of CK2α' in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of CK2α' in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and its prognosis value.

Methods Tissue microarray was made from tumor and adjacent normal tissues of 83 patients with HCC. Immunohistochemical was used to stain the microarray for semi-quantitative analysis, and the expression of CK2α' in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues was compared. The associations between CK2α' expression and clinicopathologic features of HCC patients were analyzed with χ² text. The prognostic value of CK2α' was estimated using Kaplan-Meier approach.

Results The average positive expression rate of CK2α' was 47.8% in HCC and 65.4% in adjacent normal tissues. The positive expression rate of CK2α' in HCC tissues was lower than that in adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.01). The expression level of CK2α' in the cancer tissues of 74.7% cases was significantly lower than that in the adjacent tissues. HCC patients with low CK2α' expression had higher risk of recurrence and shorter overall survival time (P < 0.05). The expression of CK2α' was significantly correlated with CK19 (P < 0.05).

Conclusion CK2α' is down-regulated in HCC tissues and correlated with the prognosis of patients. It could be a potential prognostic marker for HCC.