PURPOSE: To explore the correlations of HECT domain and ankyrin repeat-containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1 (HACE1) expression with the pathological stages, computed tomography (CT) features and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: The clinical data were randomly collected from 70 patients with primary HCC. The messenger RNA (mRNA) and HACE1 in the cancer and paracancer tissues were determined via real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The curve of the relationship between HACE1 expression and patients' overall survival (OS) was plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method. Finally, the CT imaging data of patients were pooled to analyze the relationships of HACE1 expression with CT signs. RESULTS: Compared with those in the paracancer tissues, the mRNA and protein expression levels of HACE1 declined significantly in HCC tissues (p<0.05). It was found through analyzing the clinical indicators that the expression level of HACE1 was considerably correlated with the tumor diameter, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages and pathological grades (p<0.05). The survival analysis revealed that the OS of patients in Low HACE1 group was shorter than that in High HACE1 group (median OS: 12.40 months vs. 15.16 months, p=0.031). Besides, as indicated by CT examination, the expression of HACE1 was not correlated with the number of tumors (p>0.05), but notably associated with the size, capsule and necrosis of tumors (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HCC tissues are significantly deficient in HACE1, and the combination of HACE1 and CT images may serve as an efficacious strategy for the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of HCC.
PURPOSE: To explore the correlations of HECT domain and ankyrin repeat-containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1 (HACE1) expression with the pathological stages, computed tomography (CT) features and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: The clinical data were randomly collected from 70 patients with primary HCC. The messenger RNA (mRNA) and HACE1 in the cancer and paracancer tissues were determined via real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The curve of the relationship between HACE1 expression and patients' overall survival (OS) was plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method. Finally, the CT imaging data of patients were pooled to analyze the relationships of HACE1 expression with CT signs. RESULTS: Compared with those in the paracancer tissues, the mRNA and protein expression levels of HACE1 declined significantly in HCC tissues (p<0.05). It was found through analyzing the clinical indicators that the expression level of HACE1 was considerably correlated with the tumor diameter, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages and pathological grades (p<0.05). The survival analysis revealed that the OS of patients in Low HACE1 group was shorter than that in High HACE1 group (median OS: 12.40 months vs. 15.16 months, p=0.031). Besides, as indicated by CT examination, the expression of HACE1 was not correlated with the number of tumors (p>0.05), but notably associated with the size, capsule and necrosis of tumors (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HCC tissues are significantly deficient in HACE1, and the combination of HACE1 and CT images may serve as an efficacious strategy for the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of HCC.