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Background: To investigate the correlation of Arg-1 expression with clinicopathologic factors and prognosis of HCC patients, including recurrence and survival rate.
Methods: We examined the expression of Arg-1 in HCC by immunohistochemistry and studied its correlation with a series of clinicopathologic features and prognositic parameters of patients with HCC.
Results: We found patients with higher Arg-1 expression showed less aggressive features based on less portal vein invasion (χ2 = 10.794, df = 1, p = 0.001), less microvessel invasion (χ2 = 4.247, df = 1, p = 0.039), lower TNM stage (χ2 = 4.992, df = 1, p = 0.025), and better differentiated histology (χ2 = 24.155, df = 1, p < 0.001). Among them, portal vein invasion (p = 0.024, 95% CI 1.010 - 2.321), microvessel invasion (p = 0.043, 95% CI 1.014 - 3.225), histology (p = 0.001, 95% CI 2.230 - 5.934), and TNM stage (p = 0.001, 95% CI 1.364 - 3.401) have been suggested as prognostic factors in HCC patients. Furthermore, the enhanced expression of Arg-1 in HCC appears to be associated with a lower recurrence rate and prolonged overall survival.
Conclusions: These results suggest that Arg-1 may play a tumor suppressive role in HCC and could be a new, promising prognostic biomarker for HCC patients.
DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2012.120210
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