Abstract: Objective The objective of this study was to analyze the expression of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T(UBE2T)in primary liver cancer and its relationship with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of patients with liver cancer. Methods The second generation sequencing data and clinical pathological data of UBE2T gene mRNA in normal liver tissues and liver cancer tissues were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)database.The expression of UBE2T in cancer tissues and normal tissues was analyzed to elucidate the relationship between UBE2T at mRNA level and clinicopathological parameters of patients with liver cancer.Kaplan-Meier was used for prognostic analysis.The Cox proportional hazard regression model was performed for the multivariate analysis of the prognostic factors associated with HCC.Based on the results of gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA),UBE2T was involved in the possible regulating pathways of HCC development. Results The expression of UBE2T at mRNA level in hepatocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues(P＜0.01).The high expression of UBE2T was closely related to pathological grade,TNM staging,and vascular invasion(P＜0.01),suggesting a poor prognosis of patients with liver cancer.Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that TNM staging,vascular invasion and UBE2T expression were independent risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients with liver cancer. Conclusion The high expression of UBE2T is significantly associated with the clinicopathological factors and prognosis of patients with liver cancer.It can be used as a potential marker for predicting the prognosis of liver cancer patients and a target for tumor therapy.

Key words: UBE2T, Carcinoma, Hepatocellular, The cancer genome atlas(TCGA), Prognosis