Impact of L-type amino acid transporter 3 on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of L-type amino acid transporter 3 (LAT3) expression on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 135 patients who had undergone initial hepatic resection for HCC at Tokushima University Hospital (Tokushima, Japan) were enrolled in the present study. Immunohistochemical analysis of LAT3 and phosphorylated AKT (p-AKT) was performed using resected specimens. Clinicopathological factors, including prognosis, were compared between the LAT3-high and -low expression groups. The results demonstrated that the LAT3-high group showed significantly higher protein induced by vitamin K absence-II levels (P=0.01) compared with the LAT3-low group. The LAT3-high group showed significantly worse prognosis compared with the LAT3-low group regarding cancer-specific survival and disease-free survival (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that high LAT3 expression and multiple tumors were independent prognostic factors for cancer-specific survival. Furthermore, the rate of p-AKT-positive cases was higher in the LAT3-high group than in the LAT3-low group. Overall, these findings suggested that LAT3 expression was associated with poor prognosis of HCC and high p-AKT expression.