Kindlin-2: A novel prognostic biomarker for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

The association of aberrant expression of Kindlin-2 with tumor progression has been reported in recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of Kindlin-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to evaluate its clinical and prognostic significance. The mRNA and protein levels of Kindlin-2 in HCC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues were examined by real-time PCR and western blotting. The relationships between Kindlin-2 expression, clinicopathological features and postoperative survival of HCC patients were also evaluated. Kindlin-2 expression was higher in HCC tissues as compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues at both mRNA and protein levels (P < 0.05, respectively). Positive expression of Kindlin-2 was significantly correlated with larger tumor size (P = 0.034), capsular invasion (P = 0.009), microvascular invasion (P = 0.028) and poor prognosis of HCC patients (P < 0.001). Moreover, multivariate survival analysis identified Kindlin-2 as an independent prognostic factor for overall and disease-free survival of HCC patients (P = 0.018 and 0.001, respectively). Taken together, our findings suggested that Kindlin-2 was highly expressed in HCC tissues and was closely related to clinical progression. Therefore, Kindlin-2 protein could be a potential biomarker for predicting poor prognosis of HCC patients after surgery.