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Oxytocin Receptor Genetic Alterations in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

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Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths with a very poor prognosis. Consequently, there is an urgent need for better understanding the molecular mechanisms, novel prognostic biomarkers, and more effective treatment options. There is an emerging link between oxytocin (OXT), the oxytocin receptor (OXTR), and cancer. However, the role of OXT or the OXTR in HCC remains unknown. The research question of this study was as follows: are there genetic alterations in the oxytocin (OXT) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) genes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and do these alterations impact overall survival and disease-free survival? In this retrospective study, we reviewed 360 individual HCC patient data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) using cBioPortal accessed in April 2018. The data in The Cancer Genome Atlas are from various institutions in the USA. We found that 3% (11 of 360) of cases showed genetic alterations in the OXTR gene. The median months survival was lower for HCC cases with genetic alterations in the OXTR gene as compared to cases without genetic alteration in this gene (33.0 versus 60.84, respectively. Additionally, the median months disease-free survival was lower in cases with genetic alterations in the OXTR gene as compared to cases without alterations (8.64 versus 21.55, respectively). OXTR is a promising prognostic biomarker for HCC, and OXTR antagonists could have a future role as therapeutic agents for a subset of HCC patients. Further study of the detailed molecular mechanisms of OXT and OXTR in HCC is warranted.

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Funding

Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi is supported by the National Cancer Institute grant # 1 U54 CA221704-01 A1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Hunter College of The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Trisheena Harricharran & Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

  2. Hunter College Center for Cancer Health Disparities Research, New York, NY, USA

    Trisheena Harricharran & Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

  3. The Graduate Center Departments of Biology and Biochemistry, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Trisheena Harricharran & Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

  4. Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA

    Trisheena Harricharran & Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

Authors
  1. Trisheena Harricharran
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  2. Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi
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Correspondence to Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi.

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Conflict of Interest

Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi is a Co-Founder of NucleoBio, Inc., a City University of New York start-up biotechnology company. There are no other conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Ethical Approval

The analysis was performed using publicly available de-identified data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Ethical approval was unnecessary for this analysis.

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There was no interaction with human subjects or identifiable human subject information. Hence, informed consent was unnecessary for this analysis.

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Harricharran, T., Ogunwobi, O.O. Oxytocin Receptor Genetic Alterations in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. SN Compr. Clin. Med. 1, 523–526 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-019-00085-2

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