TY - JOUR T1 - Increased Copy Number of the Gene Encoding SF3B4 Indicates Poor Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 2139 LP - 2144 VL - 36 IS - 5 AU - TOMOHIRO IGUCHI AU - HISATERU KOMATSU AU - TAKAAKI MASUDA AU - SHO NAMBARA AU - SHINYA KIDOGAMI AU - YUSHI OGAWA AU - QINGJIANG HU AU - TOMOKO SAITO AU - HIDENARI HIRATA AU - SHOTARO SAKIMURA AU - RYUTARO UCHI AU - NAOKI HAYASHI AU - SHUHEI ITO AU - HIDETOSHI EGUCHI AU - KEISHI SUGIMACHI AU - YOSHIHIKO MAEHARA AU - KOSHI MIMORI Y1 - 2016/05/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/36/5/2139.abstract N2 - Background/Aim: Defects in alternative splicing contribute to carcinogenesis, cancer progression and chemoresistance. The spliceosome pathway, including SF3B4, a component of spliceosomal complex is suggested to play a role in progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, the clinical relevance of SF3B4 in HCC remains unknown. Patients and Methods: SF3B4 expression was evaluated by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in 72 HCC samples and non-cancerous liver samples. The relationship between the DNA copy number and SF3B4 expression levels was investigated using TCGA datasets. Results: SF3B4 expression was significantly higher in cancerous than in non-cancerous tissues and positively correlated with SF3B4 DNA copy number. High SF3B4 expression is significantly associated with intrahepatic metastasis and poor prognosis. These results were consistent with data from the public datasets. Conclusion: Overexpression of SF3B4, that is due to DNA copy number increase, is suggested to play a role in progression of HCC. ER -