Integrative Genomic Identification of Genes on 8p Associatedwith Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression and Patient Survival

Background & Aims—Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignancy; its mechanisms of development and progression are poorly understood. We used an integrative approach to identify HCC driver genes, defined as genes whose copy numbers associate with gene
expression and cancer progression.

Methods—We combined data from high-resolution, array-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and transcriptome analysis of HCC samples from 76 patients with hepatitis B virus infection with data on patient survival times. Candidate genes were functionally validated
using in vitro and in vivo models.

Results—Unsupervised analyses of array CGH data associated loss of chromosome 8p with poor outcome (reduced survival time); somatic copy number alterations correlated with expression of 27.3% of genes analyzed. We associated expression levels of 10 of these genes with patient
survival times in 2 independent cohorts (comprising 319 cases of HCC with mixed etiology) and 3 breast cancer cohorts (637 cases). Among the 10-gene signature, a cluster of 6 genes on 8p,