TMEM147 is a novel biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver malignancy with high incidence and poor prognosis. Transmembrane protein 147 (TMEM147) has been implicated in the development of colon cancer. However, the role of TMEM147 in HCC remains unclear. In this study, data of 371 HCC tissues, 50 adjacent nontumor tissues, and 110 normal liver tissues were retrieved from the TCGA and GTEx databases. TMEM147 expression was found to be increased in HCC tissues. High expression of TMEM147 was related to poor prognosis, and TMEM147 was confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients. A receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was performed and showed that the diagnostic efficacy of TMEM147 was significantly higher than that of AFP (0.908 versus 0.746, p