Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical implications of cancerous tissue cytokeratin 7 (CK7) and glypican-3 (GPC3) expression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods A total of 219 patients with HCC were enrolled in our hospital between April 2018 and January 2022, and all underwent radical hepatectomy. The patients were followed-up for one year. The expressions of CK7 and GPC3 in cancerous and its adjacent liver tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. The survival curves were drawn by Kaplain-maier method and the differences of survival rate between patients with CK7 and GPC3 positive and negative were compared by Log Rank test. Results The positive rates of cancerous tissue CK7 and GPC3 expression were 33.3% and 63.5%, significantly higher than 15.5% and 21.9%(P＜0.05) in the adjacent liver tissues; the positive rates of cancerous tissue CK7 expression in low differentiated tumors, BCLC stage C, tumors with vascular invasion, portal cancerous embolus and extrahepatic metastasis were 57.1%, 47.2%, 50.0%, 51.9% and 59.5%, all significantly higher than 16.4%, 20.4%, 24.1%, 22.5% and 28.0%(P＜0.05), and the positive rates of cancerous tissue GPC3 expression were 79.1%, 76.4%, 82.1%, 81.5% and 86.5%, all much higher than 52.3%, 51.3%, 53.2%, 52.9% and 58.8%(P＜0.05) in their surrounding liver tissues; at the end of one-year follow-up, the survival rate in our series was 75.8%; the one-year survival rate in patients with cancerous tissue CK7 negative was 80.1%, much higher than 67.1%(P＜0.05)in those with CK7 positive, and the one-year survival rate of patients with cancerous GPC3 negative was 85.0%, much higher than 70.5%(P＜0.05) in those with GPC3 positive. Conclusion The expressions of CK7 and GPC3 in cancerous tissues are up-regulated in patients with HCC, which might be correlated to tumor malignance and invasiveness.

Key words: Hepatoma, Cytokeratin 7, Glypican-3, Expression, Prognosis