Role of Sox2 and Oct4 in predicting survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients after hepatectomy

Objectives: The present study was aimed to explore the prognostic strength of Sox2 and Oct4A in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Design and methods: We investigated the expression of Sox2 and Oct4A in five hepatoma cell lines, one immortalized normal liver cell line, HCC tissues with matched nontumorous liver tissues and normal liver tissues by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results: Sox2 and Oct4A mRNA were overexpressed in hepatoma cell lines and tumor tissues. Sox2 or Oct4A positive expression was significantly associated with an aggressive phenotype. Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that Sox2 or Oct4A was an independent prognostic factor for HCC. When using subgroup analysis, the patients with a co-expression of Sox2/Oct4A had the poorest prognosis. Further analysis demonstrated that Sox2 alone or Sox2/Oct4A could stratify outcome in HCC patients with early stage. Conclusions: Sox2 and Oct4A can be novel predictors of poor prognosis for patients undergoing resection of HCC. (C) 2011 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.