Alternatively activated NUSAP1 promotes tumor growth and indicates poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Primary liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer type around the world, with increasing incidence in the past several decades (1). According to the statistics from GLOBOCAN 2012, approximately 782,500 new cases and 745,500 deaths occurred globally due to liver cancer; however, approximately 50% of all cases were in China (2). Previous studies have found that the high incidence of primary liver cancer in China was associated with the increasing prevalence of chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) (2-5). Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), originating in hepatocytes, is the major histologic subtype of liver cancer and accounts for ~80% of primary liver cancer cases. Currently, there are various types of HCC therapies, such as hepatic resection, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiofrequency ablation or alcohol ablation, and liver transplantation (6-8). Although these therapies have improved the survival of HCC patients compared to that observed in the last decade, the overall prognosis is still poor. Thus, underlying molecular mechanism investigation, novel biomarker identification and recurrence prediction are urgent goals to improve the early diagnosis and prognosis of HCC (7)