Clinical significance of down-regulated HINT2 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

To study the clinical significance of HINT2 expression in patients with HCC. We investigated HINT2 mRNA expression in tumors and adjacent non-tumor hepatic tissues from 106 HCC patients using quantitative real-time PCR. Appropriate statistical methods were then applied to assess the relationships between the HINT2 mRNA level and clinical parameters. HINT2 was significantly down-regulated in HCC (P < .0001). No significant correlation was found between HINT2 expression and clinicopathological factors in HCC patients. A Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that HINT2 expression is related to recurrence-free survival (P < .05). Multivariate analyses revealed that tumor size and HINT2 expression are risk factors for HCC recurrence. HINT2 is down-regulated in HCC, and low HINT2 expression predicts earlier tumor recurrence. HINT2 expression may serve as a prognostic indicator of recurrence in HCC.