The prognostic significance of preoperative plasma levels of osteopontin in patients with TNM stage-I of hepatocellular carcinoma

To evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative plasma osteopontin (OPN) levels in patients with early stage of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Preoperative plasma levels of OPN were detected by ELISA in 68 patients with tumor-node-metastasis system stage-I of HBV-related HCC, and their association with tumor recurrence or patients' survival was analyzed. The median plasma OPN level of patients was 82.51 ng/ml (25-75% interquartile range, 63.15-110.45 ng/ml). Plasma OPN levels in patients with tumor size a parts per thousand yen5 cm in diameter were significantly higher than that of patients with tumor size < 5 cm in diameter (104.76 vs. 75.16 ng/ml, P = 0.003). When the 100 ng/ml was used as a cut-off value to divide the patients into two groups: the higher plasma OPN group and the lower plasma OPN group, the tumor recurrence rate of the higher plasma OPN group was significantly higher than that of the lower plasma OPN group (52.17 vs. 24.44%, P = 0.022). Meanwhile, the recurrence rate of the patients with positive alpha fetoprotein (AFP) (45.5%) was significantly higher than that of those negative AFP patients (12.5%, P = 0.006). A higher plasma OPN level was one leading independent prognostic factor for both overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival in multivariate Cox models. The preoperative plasma OPN level and serum AFP level in patients with early stage of HCC can be used as a prognostic marker for early stage of HCC.