Perioperative plasma glypican-3 level may enable prediction of the risk of recurrence after surgery in patients with stage I hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell surface protein overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), and its overexpression is associated with poor prognosis. The diagnostic potential of GPC3 as a serum marker has been reported. In the present study, we evaluated the usefulness of plasma GPC3 as a predictor for recurrence after surgical resection in stage I HCC patients by newly developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system. Current study demonstrated that high levels of preoperative plasma GPC3 patients tended to experience postoperative recurrence. On the other hand, pre- and postoperative plasma GPC3 positivity of non-recurrence patients was very low. Moreover, even after surgery, approximately half of patients who experienced recurrence were positive for plasma GPC3. Postoperative plasma GPC3 positivity was significantly correlated with worse recurrence-free survival. Immuohistochemical analysis also showed positive rate of GPC3-expression in HCC was higher in recurrence patients than in non-recurrence patients. These results suggested that both pre- and postoperative plasma GPC3 levels may be accurate predictors for recurrence after curative resection of early-stage HCC. It should be noted that the current study only examined a small number of cases; thus, a larger sample size is necessary to validate GPC3 as a predictor for HCC recurrence.

Phase I study of glypican-3-derived peptide vaccine therapy for patients with refractory pediatric solid tumors

“…It was recently reported that GPC3-expression level serves as a predictive marker and improves diagnostic efficacy when used with other tumor markers in adults with HCC. 40,41 In this study, GPC3 levels decreased temporarily at least once in cases 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, and 13 during the follow-up period. Furthermore, two patients (cases 2 and 13) who maintained low GPC3 levels received comparatively good prognoses, suggesting that circulating GPC3 level might also serve as a predictive marker of GPC3-peptide-vaccine efficacy for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors.…”

Immunological efficacy of glypican-3 peptide vaccine in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

“…22 It was recently reported that the level of GPC3 also serves as a predictive marker and improves diagnostic efficacy when used with other routine parameters in HCC. 23,24 Therefore, we evaluated the level of these tumor markers before and after vaccinations and their utility in GPC3 peptide vaccine therapy. GPC3 levels were detectable in the plasma of all patients before vaccination; these decreased temporarily at least once in Patients 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 during the follow-up period (8/11 patients, 72.7%; Fig.…”

Glypican-3: A New Target for Diagnosis and Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Lots of tissue microarray and immunohistochemical data showed that GPC3 is highly expressed in more than 70% of HCC samples, but not in normal liver tissues, benign liver lesions, liver cirrhosis or hepatitis tissues [5,[63][64][65]. Also, the expression level of GPC3 is correlated with prognosis [66][67][68][69]. In addition, GPC3 is also highly expressed in some other cancers such as hepatoblastoma [70], lung squamous cell carcinoma [71], ovarian yolk sac tumor [72], melanoma [73], and urothelial carcinoma [74].…”