Demographic data of the study subjects
The clinical characteristics of HCC patients were shown in Table 1. 41 female and 91 male patients were enrolled in this study (mean age, 53.37 ± 14.95 years; range, 36–81 years). Among these patients, 90 patients had liver cirrhosis and 79 patients had AFP levels less than 20 ng/mL. 74 tumors were less than 5 cm in size and 58 tumors were more than 5 cm in size. There were 68 cases with well or moderate differentiation and 64 cases with poor differentiation. Of 132 patients, 67 patients were at stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ and 65 patients were at stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ. There were 43 patients with positive metastasis and 50 patients of T3 + T4 invasion classification.
Rab25 expression was up-regulated in HCC patients
The relative mRNA expression levels of Rab25 in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were detected by qRT-PCR. Compared with normal tissues, Rab25 mRNA expression was significantly increased in HCC tissues (P < 0.001, Fig. 1). According to the median Rab25 expression, 132 HCC patients were divided into high Rab25 expression group and low Rab25 expression group.
Relationship between Rab25 expression and clinical features of HCC patients
To explore whether Rab25 was involved in the development of HCC, we analyzed the correlation between its expression and clinical characteristics of patients. As shown in Table 1, a notable correlation was found between Rab25 expression and TNM stage (P = 0.024), metastasis (P = 0.022) as well as invasion classification (P = 0.039). However, Rab25 expression was not obviously associated with age, gender, liver cirrhosis, AFP level, tumor size or differentiation (P > 0.05, Table 1).
Increased expression of Rab25 was associated with poor prognosis of HCC patients
In Kaplan-Meier analysis, the overall survival time of HCC patients with low Rab25 expression was markedly longer than those with high expression of Rab25 (log rank test, P < 0.001, Fig. 2). To estimate whether Rab25 expression was associated with the prognosis of HCC, cox regression analysis was conducted. Univariate and multivariate analyses using cox regression analysis revealed that Rab25 expression (HR = 2.149, 95%CI = 1.276–3.618, P = 0.004), TNM stage (HR = 2.041, 95%CI = 1.215–3.429, P = 0.007) and metastasis (HR = 1.860, 95%CI = 1.125–3.078, P = 0.016) were all correlated with the overall survival and they might be independent prognostic factors of HCC patients (Table 2).
Table 2
Univariate and multivariate cox regression analyses of prognostic factors in patients with HCC patients
Factors | Univariate analysis | Multivariate analysis |
HR | (95%CI) | P | HR | (95%CI) | P |
Rab25 (High vs Low) | 2.512 | 1.503-4.200 | < 0.001 | 2.149 | 1.276–3.618 | 0.004 |
Age (years) (> 53 vs ≤ 53) | 1.023 | 0.624–1.677 | 0.929 | - | - | - |
Gender (Male vs Female) | 1.401 | 0.794–2.471 | 0.245 | - | - | - |
Liver cirrhosis (Yes vs No) | 1.353 | 0.776–2.360 | 0.287 | - | - | - |
AFP level (ng/mL) (> 20 vs ≤ 20) | 1.644 | 1.003–2.696 | 0.049 | - | - | - |
Tumor size (cm) (> 5 vs ≤ 5) | 1.659 | 1.010–2.723 | 0.045 | - | - | - |
Differentiation (Poor vs Well + Moderate) | 1.789 | 1.080–2.966 | 0.024 | - | - | - |
TNM stage (Ⅲ-Ⅳ vs Ⅰ-Ⅱ) | 2.211 | 1.322–3.698 | 0.002 | 2.041 | 1.215–3.429 | 0.007 |
Metastasis (Positive vs Negative) | 2.037 | 1.238–3.353 | 0.005 | 1.860 | 1.125–3.078 | 0.016 |
Invasion classification (T3 + T4 vs T1 + T2) | 1.749 | 1.066–2.871 | 0.027 | - | - | - |
Note: - indicated no data. |