NUCKS1 Acts as a Promising Novel Biomarker for the Prognosis of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Objective: Nuclear casein kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase substrate 1 (NUCKS1) is highly expressed in some tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its clinical significance in HCC prognosis is still unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the expression and prognostic value of NUCKS1 in HCC. Materials and Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect relative expression of NUCKS1 mRNA in HCC tissues and corresponding adjacent normal tissues. The relationship between NUCKS1 expression and clinical characteristics of patients was analyzed by χ² test. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis were applied to estimate prognostic value of NUCKS1 in HCC. Results: Compared with normal ones, the expression of NUCKS1 mRNA was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues (p < 0.001). Besides, NUCKS1 expression was closely associated with tumor differentiation, tumor node metastasis stage, vascular invasion, and metastasis (p < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that overall survival was obviously longer in HCC patients with low expression of NUCKS1 than those with high NUCKS1 expression (log rank test, p = 0.001). NUCKS1 might be an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients (HR = 1.905, 95% CI = 1.106-3.283, p = 0.020). Conclusions: NUCKS1 may be correlated with the progression of HCC and serve as a potential predictive factor for the prognosis of this disease.