Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 19|pp 19455—19467

Cancer-testis antigen lactate dehydrogenase C4 in hepatocellular carcinoma: a promising biomarker for early diagnosis, efficacy evaluation and prognosis prediction

Zhaolei Cui¹, Yun Li², Yanni Gao¹, Lingying Kong³, Yingfeng Lin¹, Yan Chen¹

¹Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Tumor Biotherapy, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Fujian Cancer Hospital and Fujian Medical University Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou 350014, Fujian, PR China
²Department of Blood Transfusion, The First Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350009, Fujian, PR China
³Department of Pathology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated People’s Hospital, Fuzhou 350004, Fujian, PR China

Received: May 2, 2020Accepted: June 22, 2020Published: October 9, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Cui et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Expressions and clinical implications of cancer-testis antigen (CTA) lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)-C4 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been fully elucidated. Herein, expressions of LDHC mRNA in the serum and serum-derived exosomes of early-stage HCC patients were determined using qRT-PCR, and the expression of LDH-C4 protein in HCC tissues was detected using high-throughput tissue microarray analysis. It was found that positive rates of LDHC mRNA expressions in the serum and serum exosomes of HCC patients were 68% and 60%, respectively. The AUCs of serum and exosomal LDHC in differentiating HCC patients from healthy controls were 0.8382 and 0.9451, respectively. The serum and exosomal LDHC levels in HCC patients in the treatment group were higher than the levels in the preliminary diagnosis group, but lower than those in the recurrence group. Survival analysis showed that the expression of LDH-C4 was negatively correlated with the prognosis of HCC. The Cox regression analysis showed that an LDH-C4 level was an independent risk factor for the prognosis of HCC patients. Therefore, serum and exosomal LDHC can be used as a biomarker for early diagnosis, efficacy evaluation and recurrence prediction of HCC. Moreover, LDH-C4 can be used as an important reference indicator for monitoring the prognosis of HCC.