Expression of sialyl Lewis (x) in hepatocellular carcinoma
Tori, A.; Harada, A.; Nakao, A.; Nonami, T.; Ito, M.; Takagi, H.
Hepato-Gastroenterology 42(6): 939-943
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0172-6390 PMID: 8847049 Document Number: 447304
Background/Aims: Expression of the sialyl Lewis' antigen, a cell adhesion molecule, was studied immunohistochemically in patients with hepatocellular carcinomas. Materials and Methods: Fifty-six patients who underwent curative hepatic resections from July 1984 to October 1990 were studied. Results: Hepatocellular staining patterns of the sialyl Lewis-x in cancerous or noncancerous regions were divided into the three categories of high grade (HG), medium grade (MG), and low grade (LG). In cancerous regions, HG: 54% (30/56); MG:13% (7/56); LG: 34% (19/56). In noncancerous regions, HG: 86% (48/56), MG: 4% (2156), LG:11% (6/56). Patients with LG or MG sialyl Lewis-x expression in cancerous regions had vascular invasion more frequently, and larger maximum diameters than HG patients, both with statistical significance (p lt 0.01, p lt 0.05, respectively). The 20 cases in which the expression of sialyl Lewis-x in cancerous regions was downgraded compared with noncancerous regions (from HG in noncancerous regions to MG or LG in cancerous regions; from MG in noncancerous regions to LG in cancerous regions), also had vascular invasion significantly more frequently than the other 36 cases (p lt 0.02). Conclusion: These results lead us to speculate that the diminishing change of hepatocellular sialyl Lewis-x expression with malignant transformation, or the small amounts of hepatocellular sialyl Lewis' expression in cancerous regions, are related to tumor spread of hepatocellular carcinoma.