Overexpression of RhoA is associated with poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Aims The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between RhoA expression and clinic pathological parameters of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to evaluate the prognostic value of RhoA for HCC patients. Methods Three methods, including reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction, Western blot and immunohistochemical staining were employed to detect RhoA expression in 128 HCC specimens. The correlation between RhoA expression and clinicopathologic outcome, and prognostic value of RhoA for HCC patients were analyzed. Results HCC tissues revealed significantly higher levels of both RhoA mRNA and protein than pericarcinomatous liver tissues (PCLT) (P = 0.001). The mRNA and protein expression levels of RhoA in HCC tissues showed strongly positive correlation (correlation coefficient = 0.712, P = 0.01). There was significant correlation among RhoA mRNA and protein overexpression, and venous invasion (P = 0.009 and P = 0.040, respectively) and cell differentiation (P = 0.021 and P = 0.017). HCC patients with RhoA-positive expression showed a significantly poor prognosis than those with RhoA-negative expression (P = 0.039). Conclusions Our data strongly suggested that increased RhoA expression in HCC correlated with venous invasion and cell differentiation of HCC, overexpression of RhoA indicated a poor prognosis in HCC patients.