Downregulation of tumor protein 53-inducible nuclear protein 1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma correlates with poor prognosis

The expression of tumor protein 53-inducible nuclear protein 1 (TP53INP1) is upregulated in certain cancers and downregulated in others. However, its expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not clear. The present study aimed to investigate the expression and prognostic value of TP53INP1 and its association with clinicopathological parameters in HCC. TP53INP1 expression in HCC tissue samples was examined via immunohistochemistry, western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Expression was categorized as high or low. The correlations of TP53INP1 expression with clinical characteristics and patients' prognoses were determined. TP53INP1 was frequently decreased in HCC tissues compared with adjacent non-tumorous liver tissues. This decreased expression was significantly associated with American Joint Committee on Cancer stage (P=0.014) and vascular invasion (P=0.024). Kaplan-Meier analysis further revealed that recurrence-free survival (RFS) (P=0.001) and overall survival (OS) (P=0.002) were significantly worse among patients with low TP53INP1 expression than among those with high TP53INP1 expression. In addition, multivariate analyses revealed that TP53INP1 was an independent predictor of OS [hazard ratio (HR)=2.680, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.087–6.608, P=0.032) and RFS (HR=2.284, 95% CI=1.157–4.511, P=0.017). In conclusion, the expression of TP53INP1 was decreased in HCC, and TP53INP1 downregulation was an independent predictor of poor prognosis in patients with HCC.