BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most frequent cause of cancer-related death in adults. Despite recent advances in the clinical technologies, the screening and diagnostic efficacy for HCC remains poor. Discovering novel and reliable HCC biomarkers is urgently needed.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a transcriptome-proteome integrated assay to track the possible HCC biomarkers from the process of HCC-derived gene expression in malignant cells to its protein product released into serum.

RESULTS: Our screening results demonstrated that heat shock protein 90A (HSP90A), which participates in the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and many other cancer-related pathways, warrants further investigation. The expression of HSP90A was increased in the HCC cells, serum, and tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis on 76 clinical tissue samples also suggested the relevance between HSP90A expression and HCC metastatic behavior.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest a role for HSP90A in HCC pathogenesis and the potential use of HSP90A for the screening and diagnosis of this malignancy.

Keywords: Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics, Gene Expression Profiling, HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins - genetics, Liver Neoplasms - pathology, Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases - metabolism, Proteome - metabolism, Proteomics