Intratumoral reciprocal expression of monocarboxylate transporter 4 and glypican-3 in hepatocellular carcinomas

Objective We previously reported the identification of monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4) and glypican-3 (GPC3) as prognostic factors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which are now considered significant poor prognostic factors for the disease. This study aimed to clarify the detailed interaction of these two factors in HCC to improve our understanding of aggressive HCC phenotypes. A total of 225 Japanese patients with HCC from our previous study were subjected to immunohistochemical analyses.