Overexpression of metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 predicts a poor outcome of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 1 Analysis of metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 and c-Met expression in liver tissues. A: Representative metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) and c-Met mRNA in intratumoral [T: T1 as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) stage A, T2, T3 as HCC stage B] and matching paratumor tissues (N: N1, N2 and N3) and normal liver tissues (C) by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR); B: Comparison of MACC1 and c-Met expression levels in 10 normal liver tissue, and HCC with stage A (n = 138), stage B (n = 96), stage C (n = 120) by real-time quantitative-PCR; C: The ratio for MACC1 mRNA levels in HCC stage A and stage B tumor tissues relative to matching paratumor tissues; D: Comparison of the intratumoral and peritumoral MACC1 expression in HCC stage A and stage B, as determined by immunohistochemistry; E: Immunohistochemical staining of MACC1 expression in HCC. a-c: MACC1 and c-Met expression in tumor and matching paratumor tissues in one same HCC patient (× 200). a: HE showed the tumor and paratumor cells; b: MACC1 expression was higher in tumor cytoplasm than in paratumor cells; c: c-Met was expressed on the tumor cell membrane, but no staining on nontumor liver cell membrane; d-f: Representative expression of MACC1 in HCC tumor tissues (× 400). d: MACC1 positive staining occurred mainly in the cytoplasm; e: Nuclear staining of MACC1 in cancer cells; f: Relatively weak staining of MACC1 in an early stage HCC cancer cells, as compared to paratumor cells.

Figure 2 c-Met expression and correlation with metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 in 234 hepatocellular carcinoma patients received resection. A: Comparison of c-Met expression level in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with high or low intratumoral metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) mRNA expression; B: c-Met level from 234 HCC patients receiving resection specimens were plottered against MACC1 levels from the same patients. Linear regression analysis showed a significant positive correlation between c-Met and MACC1 (r = 0.360, P < 0.001); C: Kaplan-Meier analysis of MACC1 and c-Met co-expression effects on tumor-free survival; D: Kaplan-Meier analysis of MACC1 and c-Met co-expression effects on overall survival.

Figure 3 Metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 expression level associated with outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma patients receiving resection. A, B: Kaplan-Meier estimates of metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) expression effects on tumor-free survival (TFS) (A) and overall survival (OS) (B); C, D: Kaplan-Meier estimates of ratio of T:N MACC1 expression effects on TFS (C) and OS (D).