High expression level of EDIL3 in HCC predicts poor prognosis of HCC patients.

To determine the role of epidermal growth factor-like repeats and discoidin I-like domains 3 (EDIL3) in pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by investigating the EDIL3 expression in HCC and its prognostic value for HCC. EDIL3 expression was detected in 101 HCC surgical tissue samples with immunohistochemistry method, and its relation with clinicopathologic features and prognosis of HCC patients was analyzed. EDIL3 was highly expressed in 48.5% of the HCC patients. Although the EDIL3 expression level did not correlate with any clinicopathological parameters, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that high expression level of EDIL3 resulted in a significantly poor prognosis of HCC patients (log-rank test, P = 0.010). Multivariate Cox's analysis showed that the EDIL3 expression level was a significant and independent prognostic parameter for the overall survival rate of HCC patients (hazard ratio = 1.978, 95% confidence interval = 1.139-3.435, P = 0.015). High expression level of EDIL3 predicts poor prognosis of HCC patients. EDIL3 may be a potential target of antiangiogenic therapy for HCC.