Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Mar;32(3):141-8.
doi: 10.5732/cjc.012.10025. Epub 2012 Jun 14.

Prognostic value of soluble MICA levels in the serum of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

Jian-Jun Li  1 , Ke Pan, Mo-Fa Gu, Min-Shan Chen, Jing-Jing Zhao, Hui Wang, Xiao-Ting Liang, Jian-Cong Sun, Jian-Chuan Xia
Affiliations

Prognostic value of soluble MICA levels in the serum of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

Jian-Jun Li et al. Chin J Cancer. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Serum levels of soluble MHC class I-related chain A (sMICA) are related with the prognosis of various types of cancer; however, few studies on the prognostic value of sMICA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been reported. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the relationship between sMICA levels and clinical features of advanced HCC, and we assessed the prognostic value of sMICA in advanced HCC. Furthermore, the relationship of serum sMICA levels and natural killer group 2, member D (NKG2D) expression on natural killer (NK) cells was also evaluated. We detected sMICA levels in the serum of 60 advanced HCC patients using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and measured expression levels of NKG2D on NK cells using flow cytometry. We found that serum sMICA levels in HCC patients were in the range of 0.10-6.21 ng/mL. Chi-square analyses showed that sMICA level was significantly related with only tumor size. Survival analysis showed that a high sMICA level was significantly related with poor prognosis among HCC patients. Multivariate analyses indicated that sMICA was an independent prognostic factor. In addition, the levels of CD56+NKG2D+ NK cells were within the range of 11.2%-55.4%, and correlation analyses indicated that sMICA level was negatively correlated with the level of NKG2D+ NK cells. Our results suggest that serum sMICA levels may be an independent prognostic factor for advanced HCC.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Kaplan-Meier survival curves of 60 advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with different serum soluble major histocompatibility complex class I molecule A (sMICA) levels before transcatheter arterial chemo-embolization (TACE).
Increased sMICA level Is related with decreased patient survival rate. Patients in the high sMICA level group exhibited significantly poorer survival than did patients in the low sMICA level group (log-rank test, P < 0.001).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Kaplan-Meier survival curves of 60 HCC patients with different tumor sizes before TACE.
Tumor size is related with patient survival. Patients with tumor size >5 cm exhibited significantly poorer survival than did those with tumor size ≤ 5 cm (log–rank test, P < 0.001).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Kaplan-Meier survival curves of 60 HCC patients with different serum sMICA levels and tumor sizes before TACE.
High sMICA level plus large tumor size is related with short survival time, whereas low sMICA level plus small tumor size is related with long survival time (log-rank test, P < 0.001).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Correlation between serum sMICA levels and NKG2D expression on NK cells.
The sMICA level was negatively correlated with NKG2D expression on CD56+ NK cells in patients with advanced HCC (P < 0.001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Llovet JM, Burroughs A, Bruix J. Hepatocellular carcinoma. Lancet. 2003;362:1907–1917. - PubMed
    1. El-Serag HB, Davila JA, Petersen NJ, et al. The continuing increase in the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in the United States: an update. Ann Intern Med. 2003;139:817–823. - PubMed
    1. Bruix J. Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology. 1997;25:259–262. - PubMed
    1. Wörns MA, Galle PR. Future perspectives in hepatocellular carcinoma. Dig Liver Dis. 2010;42:S302–S309. - PubMed
    1. Malaguarnera G, Giordano M, Paladina I, et al. Serum markers of hepatocellular carcinoma. Dig Dis Sci. 2010;55:2744–2755. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances