Steroid 5 alpha-reductase 3 (SRD5A3) promotes tumor growth and predicts poor survival of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
Qicong Mai, Dafeng Sheng, Chengcong Chen, Qing Gou, Chen Meng, Xiaoting Huang, Heng Yin, Xiaoming Chen, Zide Chen
Abstract
. We found that the elevated expression of SRD5A3 was common in many cancers with poor prognosis. Moreover, public datasets and our specimens revealed that SRD5A3 was also upregulated in HCC tissues and associated with clinical stage and patient's gender. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that higher SRD5A3 level predicted poor overall survival, progression-free survival, relapse-free survival and disease specific survival in HCC patients. Further experiments showed that the lack of SRD5A3 inhibited the growth of HCC. Collectively, these findings indicate that SRD5A3 functions as an oncogene and might serve as a potential biomarker for prognosis and a therapeutic target for HCC.