Nuclear localization of ?-catenin is an important prognostic factor in hepatoblastoma

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Abstract
In this study, mutational and immunohistochemical analyses of β‐catenin were performed in 30 hepatoblastomas, to assess the prevalence of alterations of the Wnt pathway with respect to clinicopathological parameters and survival. Four missense mutations of β‐catenin (13.3%) were detected and there was strong immunoreactivity for β‐catenin in the cytoplasm and/or the nucleus in 97% of hepatoblastomas. Nuclear and cytoplasmic staining was demonstrated in 19 of 30 tumours (63%), while ten revealed only cytoplasmic staining. Statistically, this nuclear β‐catenin staining was significantly higher in the embryonal (Fisher exact test; p=0.00393) or undifferentiated type (p=0.00156) of hepatoblastoma than in the fetal type, but there was no difference between clinical stages I and II and clinical stages III and IV (p=0.175). Cumulative survival curves showed that nuclear β‐catenin staining (generalized Wilcoxon test; p=0.0088), undifferentiated histological type (p=0.0305), and clinical stages III and IV (p=0.0107) were significantly correlated with shorter survival time in these patients. Moreover, Cox multivariate analysis provides evidence that nuclear β‐catenin staining is the most important prognostic factor for survival (p=0.0090). It is therefore concluded that immunohistochemical analysis of β‐catenin might be a useful clinical tool for estimating the prognosis for patients with hepatoblastoma. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.