Expression of Glypican-3 is Highly Associated with Pediatric Hepatoblastoma: a Systemic Analysis

Objective: Glypican-3 (GPC3) is reported to be an oncofetal protein that is a useful diagnostic immunomarkerfor hepatoblastoma. However, the results are not inclusive. This study systemically investigated the associationbetween expression of GPC3 and pediatric hepatoblastoma.
Methods: Clinical studies evaluating the associationwere identified using a predefined search strategy. GPC3 immunohistochemistry was applied in the pathologicaldiagnosis of hepatoblastoma using the monoclonal antibodies with formalin-fixed and paraffin-embeddedspecimens. Positive predictive rates for the association between expression of GPC3 and pediatric hepatoblastomawere calculated.
Results: Specimens from four clinical studies which including 134 patients with pediatrichepatoblastoma tested by GPC3 immunohistochemistry were considered eligible for inclusion. Systemic analysisshowed that, in all patients, pooled positive predictive rate of the association between expression of GPC3 andpediatric hepatoblastoma was 95.5% (128/134).
Conclusion: This systemic analysis suggests that the expressionof glypican-3 is highly associated with the diagnosis of pediatric hepatoblastoma.