Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to determine the expression of Pim-1 in primary hepatocellular carcinoma(PHC)and its clinical significance. Methods Immunohistochemical staining(IHC)was used to detect the expression of Pim-1 in 122 cases of PHC tissues, corresponding paracancer tissues, and 85 normal liver tissues.The relationship between the expression of Pim-1 protein and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed retrospectively.K-M method was used to analyze the effect of different Pim-1 expression on the survival time of PHC patients.Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to analyze risk factors affecting survival time in patients with PHC. Results The total positive expression rate of Pim-1 protein in PHC tissues was 88.5%, which was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues and normal liver tissues(P＜0.05).Univariate statistical analysis showed that patients with high expression of Pim-1 protein had poor preoperative liver function, more tumors, larger tumor diameter, high incidence of lymph node metastasis and high TNM stage(P＜0.05).Survival analysis suggested that the survival time of patients in the low expression group was significantly longer than that in the high expression of Pim-1 group(P＜0.05).Multivariate statistical analysis showed that high expression of Pim-1 protein was an independent risk factor for survival time in patients with PHC(P＜0.001). Conclusion The expression level of Pim-1 in PHC tissues is significantly increased, which is related to the clinical progress of PHC and the survival time of patients.Pim-1 overexpression indicates the poor prognosis of PHC patients.

Key words: Pim-1, Serine/threonine kinase, Protein expression, Survival