Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4a) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and explore its prognostic value in metastasis and recurrence of HCC by analyzing its relationships with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).Methods Expressions of HNF4a in 172 HCC tissues was detected using immunohistochemistry. To establish the regression model of HNF4a protein expression with clinical pathological parameters, DFS and OS in HCC patients.Results The positive rate of HNF4a was 81.98% in 141/172 HCC patients. Moreover, HNF4a gene expression was significantly correlated with alpha fetal protein (AFP) and pathologic grading of cancer (P<0.05), while showed no significantly correlations with sex, age, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), liver cirrhosis, tumor size, tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage, metastasis and recurrence, respectively (all P>0.05). The DFS was 22.0 months in patients with high HNF4a protein expression and 4.0 months in patients with low HNF4a expression (P<0.05). OS analysis showed that HNF4a protein expression was a risk factor (P<0.05).Conclusion HNF4a expression was significantly positively correlated with the survival in HCC patients, which might be a reference index for the recurrence and prognosis of HCC.

Key words: HCC, HNF4a expression, Diagnosis, Treatment