HTATIP2 Represents an Innovative Bio-marker in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Detection

Abstract Background: This study was designed to investigate the serum level of HIV-1 Tat interactive protein 2 (HTATIP2) mRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and its diagnostic significance in the disease.Methods: The serum HTATIP2 mRNA level was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship between HTATIP2 expression and clinical parameters was analyzed using Chi-square test. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was adopted to estimate the diagnostic role of serum HTATIP2 in HCC.Results: HCC patients showed a significantly lower serum level of HTATIP2 than the healthy control (P<0.001). The level of HTATIP2 was closely associated with venous invasion (P=0.011), lymph node metastasis (P=0.007) and TNM stage (P=0.016). ROC curve demonstrated that HTATIP2 could discriminate between HCC patients and healthy individuals at the optimal cutoff point of 2.39. Besides, the AUC was 0.892, with the corresponding sensitivity and specificity of 83.90% and 84.37%, respectively. Conclusions: HTATIP2 is negatively expressed in HCC and may be a diagnostic biomarker for this disease.