Peer-review started: July 23, 2014
First decision: August 14, 2014
Revised: September 2, 2014
Accepted: November 7, 2014
Article in press: November 10, 2014
Published online: January 27, 2015
Processing time: 172 Days and 4.5 Hours
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for over 90% of all primary liver cancers. With an ever increasing incidence trend year by year, it has become the third most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. Hepatic resection is generally considered to be one of the most effective therapies for HCC patients, however, there is a high risk of recurrence in postoperative HCC. In clinical practice, there exists an urgent need for valid prognostic markers to identify patients with prognosis, hence the importance of studies on prognostic markers in improving the prediction of HCC prognosis. This review focuses on the most promising immunohistochemical prognostic markers in predicting the postoperative survival of HCC patients.
Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Hepatic resection is generally considered to be one of the most effective therapies for HCC patients, however, the overall post-hepatic resection survival of HCC patients remains unsatisfactory as indicated by the high recurrence rate. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify prognostic biomarkers for the prediction of postoperative recurrence or metastasis, and to develop better strategies for HCC management. The purpose of this paper is to review the most promising immunohistochemical prognostic markers so far for predicting the postoperative survival of HCC patients.