Carcinogenesis, Teratogenesis & Mutagenesis ›› 2026, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (2): 137-141.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-616x.2026.02.008

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Significance of CK7 and CK19 expressions in primary liver cancer

GUO Feiyu1, HU Hao2, JING Fa1, LI Wei1   

  1. 1. Department of General Surgery, Wuxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine/Wuxi Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Wuxi 214071;
    2. Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu, China
  • Received:2025-11-07 Revised:2026-03-05 Published:2026-04-09

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To investigate expressions of cytokeratin 7(CK7) and cytokeratin 19(CK19) in primary liver cancer and to analyze their clinical significance. METHODS: Immunohistochemical Envision method was used to detect expression of cytokeratins in cancer tissues from 56 liver cancer patients. Spearman correlation was used to calculate the correlation coefficient between cytokeratins. The chi-square test or Fisher's exact probability test was used to analyze relationships between expression of CK7 and CK19 proteins and clinicopathological characteristics of patients. ROC curve was used to analyze accuracy of CK7 and CK19 protein expression levels in predicting the survival status of patients. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival rates of patients,and the Log-rank test was performed. RESULTS: The positive expression rates of CK7, CK8, CK18, CK19, and CK20 proteins in liver cancer tissues were 30.36%, 89.29%,69.64%,21.43%,and 5.36%,respectively. The expression levels of CK7 and CK19 proteins were positively correlated(r=0.602,P=0.00). In primary liver cancer, expression of CK7 protein was related to the degree of differentiation and pathological type of liver cancer tissue(χ2=8.155,12.118,respectively,P<0.05). Expression of CK19 protein was related to tumor diameter,tissue differentiation,tumor stage,and pathological type(χ2=7.263,15.955,7.292,10.672,respectively,all P<0.05). Prognostic analysis showed that the area under the receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve for CK7 protein in predicting the survival status of patients was0.750,with a standard error of 0.210 and a 95% confidence interval of(0.338,1.000). The area under the ROC curve for CK19 was 0.875,with a standard error of 0.155 and a 95% confidence interval of(0.571,1.000). CK8, CK18, and CK20 showed low predictive accuracy for patient survival status. Survival analysis results showed that CK7 and CK19 had no significant effect on the survival time of patients(P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Expressions of CK7 and CK19 were highly and positively correlated. Both CK7 and CK19 affected tissue differentiation and pathological type of liver cancer patients. Prognostic analysis showed that expression of CK7 and CK19 had good prediction on postoperative survival status of patients. However,survival analysis showed that they have no significant effect on postoperative survival time of patients.

Key words: cancer, primary liver cancer, cytokeratin, prognosis of liver cancer

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