High glypican-1 expression is a prognostic factor for predicting a poor clinical prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high mortality rate, which imposes a huge burden on patients and society. Glypican-1 (GPC1) is considered to be an ideal diagnostic marker. The present study aimed to investigate GPC1 expression in HCC, its association with clinicopathological factors and its prognostic significance in HCC progression. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemical staining were used to investigate GPC1 expression in 175 HCC and paired normal tissues, and in HCC and normal cells. Serolo2gical levels of GPC1 were examined via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients with HCC. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to assess the prognostic significance of GPC1. The present results suggested that GPC1 expression was upregulated in HCC tissues, especially in metastatic HCC. Similar results were observed in HCC cell lines. Serum GPC1 was higher in patients with HCC than in healthy controls (HCs). Patients with high GPC1 expression had shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) times compared with those with low GPC1 expression. In addition, high GPC1 expression was significantly associated with tumor size and Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage (P<0.05). Furthermore, tumor size, TNM stage and GPC1 expression were independent predictive factors for RFS and DSS in patients with HCC. In conclusion, the present results revealed that high GPC1 expression was closely associated with a poor prognosis in patients with HCC and that it may therefore be used as a potential target for accurate diagnosis and treatment of HCC.