The Expression Of SALL4 And Its Clinical Significance In Primary Liver Cancer

Background and Aims:The gene encoding Sal-like 4(SALL4)is a zinc-finger transcriptional factor,and a vertebrate orthologous of the Drosophila gene spalt(sal).is a novel protooncogene In tumor cells,SALL4 is known as a regulator for controlling cell growth,proliferation,and apoptosis.SALL4 expression has been detected in various cancers,such as breast cancer,ovarian cancer,gastric cancer and liver cancer.In this study,we aim to investigate the expression of sal-like protein 4(SALL4)and to determine its clinical significance and relationship with prognosis in Primary Liver Cancer.Methods:The tissue sections were obtained from patients who were surgically resected primary liver cancers diagnosed at the First Hospital of Jilin University from 2015 to2017.The expression SALL4 of in 58 samples of Primary Liver Cancer tissue,29 of adjacent noncancerous cirrhotic tissue and 6 of normal liver tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry.Patients were followed up for postoperative survival until March 2018.The relationship between SALL4 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of Primary Liver Cancer was analyzed.Results:All slides were evaluated by three pathologists without knowledge of the clinical data.We defined immunostaining as positive if ?5% of the tumourcells were stained with the proper reactive pattern for all antibodies(positive cells +: 5–25%;++:25–75%;+++: >75%.see fig).SALL4 expression was negative in the 6 samples of tissue from normal liver tissue,was weakly positive in the 5 samples from adjacent noncancerous cirrhotic tissue,and positive in 48 samples of Liver Cancer tissues.There was no significant difference in the expression of normal liver tissues and adjacent cirrhotic tissues(P=0.561).However,there was a significant difference between normal liver tissue and Liver Cancer tissue(P<0.001),paracancerous liver tissue,and Liver Cancer tissue(p<0.001).There was no significant correlationbetween SALL4 expression and gender,AJCC staging,Child-Pugh score,liver cirrhosis,maximum tumor diameter,vascular invasion,histological grade.Conclusions:Compared with normal liver tissue and adjacent cirrhotic tissues,SALL4 is strongly expressed in liver cancer tissues.The expression level of SALL4 was not related to gender,tumor diameter,vascular invasion/metastasis,histological grade,alpha fetoprotein level,and the like.Whether SALL4 can be used as an independent predictor of prognosis of liver cancer patients needs to be determined by prolonging the observation time.