Objective  To investigate the correlations of Eag1 expression with clinicopathological features, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in peripheral blood in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

  Methods  Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression of Eag1 in 186 chips of HCC tissues. Correlations of Eag1 expression with clinicopathological features, NLR, PLR and prognosis were analyzed.

  Results  IHC result showed that the positive expression rate of Eag1 in HCC tissues was 82.3% (153/186), which was significantly higher than 56.5% (105/186) in adjacent tissues (P < 0.01). The positive expression of Eag1 in HCC was related to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP), liver cirrhosis, tumor grading, intravascular tumor embolus and postoperative recurrence (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). NLR and PLR in peripheral blood before treatment were correlated with HBsAg, AFP, liver cirrhosis, tumor grading, intravascular tumor embolus and postoperative recurrence (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The positive expression of Eag1 in HCC was significantly positively correlated with NLR and PLR (P=0.001).

  Conclusion  The high expression of Eag1 may be one of the key molecular events in the malignant progression of HCC. As a tumor specific molecular marker, Eag1 expression can reflect the malignant state of tumor and help to evaluate the prognosis of HCC patients. The high expression of Eag1 in HCC can affect NLR and PLR in peripheral blood, which suggests that it is involved in the occurrence of hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer caused by hepatitis B virus infection. Eag1 may be an effective target for targeted therapy of HCC.