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. 2022 Dec;77(6):1586-1597.
doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2022.07.019. Epub 2022 Aug 18.

Nestin as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma

Julien Calderaro  1 Luca Di Tommaso  2 Pascale Maillé  3 Aurélie Beaufrère  4 Cong Trung Nguyen  3 Lara Heij  5 Viviane Gnemmi  6 Rondell P Graham  7 Frédéric Charlotte  8 Suzanne Chartier  9 Dominique Wendum  9 Mukul Vij  10 Daniela Allende  11 Alba Diaz  12 Carla Fuster  12 Benjamin Rivière  13 Astrid Herrero  14 Jérémy Augustin  3 Katja Evert  15 Diego Francesco Calvisi  15 Wei Qiang Leow  16 Howard Ho Wai Leung  17 Jan Bednarsch  18 Emmanuel Boleslawski  19 Mohamed Rela  20 Anthony Wing-Hung Chan  17 Alejandro Forner  21 Maria Reig  21 Anaïs Pujals  3 Loetitia Favre  3 Manon Allaire  22 Olivier Scatton  23 Arnaud Uguen  24 Eric Trépo  25 Lukas Otero Sanchez  25 Denis Chatelain  26 Myriam Remmelink  27 Camille Boulagnon-Rombi  28 Céline Bazille  29 Nathalie Sturm  30 Benjamin Menahem  31 Eric Frouin  32 David Tougeron  33 Christophe Tournigand  34 Emmanuelle Kempf  34 Haeryoung Kim  35 Massih Ningarhari  36 Sophie Michalak-Provost  37 Jakob Nikolas Kather  38 Annette S H Gouw  39 Purva Gopal  40 Raffaele Brustia  41 Eric Vibert  42 Kornelius Schulze  43 Darius F Rüther  43 Sören A Weidemann  44 Rami Rhaiem  45 Jean-Charles Nault  46 Alexis Laurent  47 Giuliana Amaddeo  48 Hélène Regnault  49 Eleonora de Martin  50 Christine Sempoux  51 Pooja Navale  52 Jayendra Shinde  53 Ketan Bacchuwar  53 Maria Westerhoff  54 Regina Cheuk-Lam Lo  55 Mylène Sebbagh  56 Catherine Guettier  56 Marie Lequoy  57 Mina Komuta  58 Marianne Ziol  59 Valérie Paradis  4 Jeanne Shen  60 Stefano Caruso  3
Affiliations

Nestin as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma

Julien Calderaro et al. J Hepatol. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Background & aims: Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CCA) is a rare primary liver cancer (PLC) associated with a poor prognosis. Given the challenges in its identification and its clinical implications, biomarkers are critically needed. We aimed to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of the immunohistochemical expression of Nestin, a progenitor cell marker, in a large multicentric series of PLCs.

Methods: We collected 461 cHCC-CCA samples from 32 different clinical centers. Control cases included 368 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and 221 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (iCCAs). Nestin immunohistochemistry was performed on whole tumor sections. Diagnostic and prognostic performances of Nestin expression were determined using receiver-operating characteristic curves and Cox regression modeling.

Results: Nestin was able to distinguish cHCC-CCA from HCC with AUCs of 0.85 and 0.86 on surgical and biopsy samples, respectively. Performance was lower for the distinction of cHCC-CCA from iCCA (AUCs of 0.59 and 0.60). Nestin, however, showed a high prognostic value, allowing identification of the subset of cHCC-CCA ("Nestin High", >30% neoplastic cells with positive staining) associated with the worst clinical outcome (shorter disease-free and overall survival) after surgical resection and liver transplantation, as well as when assessment was performed on biopsies.

Conclusion: We show in different clinical settings that Nestin has diagnostic value and that it is a useful biomarker to identify the subset of cHCC-CCA associated with the worst clinical outcome. Nestin immunohistochemistry may be used to refine risk stratification and improve treatment allocation for patients with this highly aggressive malignancy.

Lay summary: There are different types of primary liver cancers (i.e. cancers that originate in the liver). Accurately identifying a specific subtype of primary liver cancer (and determining its associated prognosis) is important as it can have a major impact on treatment allocation. Herein, we show that a protein called Nestin could be used to refine risk stratification and improve treatment allocation for patients with combined hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare but highly aggressive subtype of primary liver cancer.

Keywords: cancer; cholangiocarcinoma; combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma; hepatocellular carcinoma; liver; nestin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest JC consults for Crosscope, KB is Crosscope Chief Technology Officer, JS is Crosscope Chief Executive Officer. Please refer to the accompanying ICMJE disclosure forms for further details.

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