Relationship between serum GP73 and FOXP3 levels and efficacy and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients with TACE

Abstract

Abstract: Objective To investigate the changes in serum Golgi body protein 73 (GP73) and forkhead spiral transcription factor (FOXP3) expression in patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatic arterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment. Additionally, we aim to determine the correlation between these changes and treatment effectiveness as well as prognosis.Methods A total of 198 HCC patients who underwent TACE treatment in our hospital from May 2019 to August 2021 were retrospectively selected as subjects. All patients received TACE treatment and were divided into two groups based on clinical efficacy criteria: an effective group (n=122) and an ineffective group (n=76). After treatment, we compared the levels of GP73 and FOXP3 between the two groups and analyzed the relationship between GP73 and FOXP3 expression and clinical efficacy. Furthermore, all patients were divided into a good prognosis group (n=104) and a poor prognosis group (n=94) based on the outcome. Multivariate Logistic analysis was performed to identify the risk factors that affect prognosis. Finally, we evaluated the predictive effect of GP73 and FOXP3 combined detection on the prognosis of HCC patients using ROC analysis.Results After TACE treatment, the expression of GP73 and FOXP3 in the effective group was significantly lower than that in ineffective group (158.67±69.53 vs. 179.73±61.35, 0.65±0.18 vs. 0.77±0.20 respectively, P<0.05). According to the Spearman correlation coefficient, a significantly negative correlation was observed between GP73 and FOXP3 expression and clinical efficacy (r=-0.662, -0.688, P<0.05) . Logistic regression analysis showed that Child-Pugh grade, GP73 and FOXP3 were risk factors influencing the prognosis of HCC patients. The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve of combined GP73 and FOXP3 detection was significantly higher than that of single detection (ZGP73-combined =4.415, ZFOXP3-combined =5.660, both P<0.001), with a sensitivity of 87.23% and specificity of 85.58%.Conclusion The expression of GP73 and FOXP3 in serum is significantly associated with the efficacy and prognosis of HCC patients after TACE. The combined detection of GP73 and FOXP3 can be used to improve the prognosis assessment of HCC patients.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Hepatic artery chemoembolization, Golgi apparatus protein 73, Fork-head helical transcription factor, Efficacy and prognosis

LEE EUNJI, LIU Bo, YUAN Xiang-lin. Relationship between serum GP73 and FOXP3 levels and efficacy and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients with TACE[J]. Chinese Hepatolgy, 2023, 28(11): 1319-1322.

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