Abstract: Objective To investigate the relationship of plant homeodomain finger protein 2(PHF2) expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods 121 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in our hospital from January 2015 to January 2019 were enrolled,their hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and para-carcinoma tissues were taken,and their clinical data were collected.PHF2 expression in cancer tissues was detected,and 3-year survival time was recorded.Then the correlation of PHF2 expression with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma was discussed.Multivariate Cox regression was used to analyze the prognostic risk factors of hepatocellular carcinoma. Results The positive expression rate of PHF2 in adjacent normal tissues(104/121，86.00%) was significantly higher than that in cancer tissues(26/121,21.49%)(P＜0.05).PHF2 positive expression was not associated with age,gender,smoking history,or alcohol consumption history(P>0.05),while was associated with tumor diameter,pathological grade,serum hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) and cirrhosis(P＜0.05).The mean survival time for patients with negative PHF2 expression was(16.24±2.11) months,which was significantly shorter than the patients with positive PHF2 expression[(21.29±2.18) months,P＜0.05].PHF2 expression level was an independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion The expression of PHF2 in hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with clinicopathological features and prognosis,and patients with negative expression may suffer a poor prognosis.

Key words: hepatocellular carcinoma, plant homeodomain finger protein 2, prognosis