Cystine/glutamic acid transporter is a novel marker for predicting poor survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Kinoshita,Hiroki; Okabe,Hirohisa; Beppu,Toru; Chikamoto,Akira; Hayashi,Hiromitsu; Imai,Katsunori; Mima,Kosuke; Nakagawa,Shigeki; Ishimoto,Takatsugu; Miyake,Keisuke; Yokoyama,Naomi; Ishiko,Takatoshi; Baba,Hideo

doi:10.3892/or.2012.2162

February 2013 Volume 29 Issue 2

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February 2013 Volume 29 Issue 2

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Article

Cystine/glutamic acid transporter is a novel marker for predicting poor survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Authors:
- Hiroki Kinoshita
- Hirohisa Okabe
- Toru Beppu
- Akira Chikamoto
- Hiromitsu Hayashi
- Katsunori Imai
- Kosuke Mima
- Shigeki Nakagawa
- Takatsugu Ishimoto
- Keisuke Miyake
- Naomi Yokoyama
- Takatoshi Ishiko
- Hideo Baba
View Affiliations / Copyright

Affiliations: Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan
Pages: 685-689
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Published online on: November 30, 2012

https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2012.2162
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Abstract

Cystine/glutamic acid transporter (xCT) plays a role in tumor progression by regulating the redox status in several types of cancers. To demonstrate the importance of xCT expression for predicting the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we analyzed xCT gene expression in 130 paired HCC and non-cancerous tissues. xCT protein expression was confirmed using 7 HCC cell lines and samples from human subjects. xCT mRNA expression was detected in 34 (26%) tumor tissues. Expression of xCT was higher in HCC tissues compared to the corresponding normal tissues according to quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction findings (P<0.0001). Patients in the group presenting with xCT mRNA expression showed poorer overall and disease-free survival than did those with an absence of xCT mRNA (P=0.0130 and 0.0416, respectively). xCT mRNA expression proved to be an independent factor for poor prognosis in a multivariate analysis of overall survival (hazard ratio, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.03-2.92). We observed xCT protein expression in both the HCC cell lines and in human tissue samples. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggest that xCT is useful as a predictive marker for patient prognosis and that it may be a novel therapeutic target for HCC.

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Journals

International Journal of Molecular Medicine

International Journal of Oncology

Molecular Medicine Reports

Oncology Reports

Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine

Oncology Letters

Biomedical Reports

Molecular and Clinical Oncology

World Academy of Sciences Journal

International Journal of Functional Nutrition

International Journal of Epigenetics

Medicine International

Cystine/glutamic acid transporter is a novel marker for predicting poor survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

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