BIOLOGICAL MARKERS IN HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA - POTENTIAL CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

The assessment of biological markers as potential indicators of diseas e aggressiveness is still an open problem in hepatocellular carcinoma. Cell proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM)-associated antigens and tumor-cell products can be associated with clinical aggressivenes s in this tumor type, as has already been demonstrated for others. Cel l proliferation, expressed as the in vitro [H-3]thymidine labeling ind ex, and ECM-associated antigens, such as type IV collagenase and lamin in receptors, were assessed on the same paraffin-embedded samples. A s trong association (P = 0.0001) was observed between the expression of collagenase and laminin receptors, with a correlation coefficient (r(s )) of 0.68. No relationship was found between cell proliferation and E CM-associated antigens. Moreover, the biological markers were generall y independent of clinicopathologic features, except for a higher numbe r of collagenase- and laminin receptor-positive cells in large (greate r-than-or-equal-to 5 cm) compared with small (< 5 cm) tumors. In the p resent series of hepatocellular carcinoma patients, the 3-year clinica l outcome was significantly affected by cell proliferation and ECM-ass ociated antigens.