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
Review
. 2018 Jun;97(24):e11130.
doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000011130.

Overexpression of glypican-3 is a predictor of poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma: An updated meta-analysis

Jian Zhang  1 , Manka Zhang, Huimin Ma, Xincheng Song, Lingling He, Xiaohui Ye, Xin Li
Affiliations
Review

Overexpression of glypican-3 is a predictor of poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma: An updated meta-analysis

Jian Zhang et al. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Glypican-3 (GPC3) has been widely recognized in the progression of liver tumors for several years. The relationship between overexpression of GPC3 and the poorer prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was performed by 2 meta-analyses. However, there were also some latest literatures that indicated different conclusions distinctly. It is necessary for us to carry out a meta-analysis by adding the latest data from current studies to explore the correlation between GPC3 and prognostic value in HCC.

Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis including a total of 14 studies to assess the potential prognostic significance of GPC3 expression for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). The expression of GPC3 was assessed by immunohistochemistry.

Results: Fourteen studies with 2364 patients were incorporated in the meta-analysis. The combined hazard ratios (HRs) revealed that the overexpression of GPC3 could forecast a poor OS [n = 2233 in 12 studies, HR = 1.40, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.07-1.85, Z = 2.42, P = .02] and DFS (n = 1308 in 10 studies, HR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.13-2.30, Z = 2.63, P = .008) in HCC patients. Subgroup treated by hepatectomy indicated that the pooled HR of OS was 1.43 (95% CI: 1.01-2.01, P = .04) and the combined HR of DFS was 1.59 (95% CI: 1.09-2.31, P = .02). The pooled odds ratios (ORs) showed that high GPC3 expression was also extensively associated with worse tumor differentiation, later tumor stage, presence of vascular invasion, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Subgroup analyses for GPC3 on HCC OS based on the studies categorized by regions, follow-up period, and sample size were also conducted.

Conclusion: The meta-analysis indicated that overexpression of GPC3 was significantly associated with poor prognosis in patients with HCC.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the study selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The correlation between glypican-3 (GPC3) overexpression and overall survival (OS) of patients with HCC (A); Subgroup analyses were performed by regions: China (B) and Japan (C), respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The correlation between glypican-3 (GPC3) overexpression and overall survival (OS) based on studies treated by hepatectomy.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Meta-analysis of the correlation between glypican-3 (GPC3) overexpression and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients with HCC (A); Subgroup analyses were performed by region: China (B) and Japan (C), respectively.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The correlation between glypican-3 (GPC3) overexpression and disease-free survival (DFS) based on studies treated by hepatectomy.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Meta-analysis of the relationship between GPC3 expression and vascular invasion (A), tumor cirrhosis (B), tumor TNM stage (C), tumor grade (D), tumor size ≥ 5 cm (E), tumor multifocality (F), HBV infection (G), and HCV infection (H) in HCC. Results are shown as individual and pooled odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Begg funnel plots used to detect publication bias in overall survival (A) and disease-free survival (B) studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Mazzanti R, Gramantieri L, Bolondi L. Hepatocellular carcinoma: epidemiology and clinical aspects. Mol Aspects Med 2008;29:130–43. - PubMed
    1. Sherman M. Hepatocellular carcinoma: epidemiology, surveillance, and diagnosis. Semin Liver Dis 2010;30:3–16. - PubMed
    1. Tang Z-Y, Ye S-L, Liu Y-K, et al. A decade's studies on metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2004;130:187–96. - PubMed
    1. Avielronen S, Lau SK, Pintilie M, et al. Glypican-3 is overexpressed in lung squamous cell carcinoma, but not in adenocarcinoma. Mod Pathol 2008;21:817–25. - PubMed
    1. Chen M, Li G, Yan J, et al. Reevaluation of glypican-3 as a serological marker for hepatocellular carcinoma. Clin Chim Acta 2013;423:105–11. - PubMed