Survivin expression starts before hepatocellular cancer development in the liver of chronic hepatitis B patients: a pilot, cross-sectional study

Introduction
Survivin expression is well known feature of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, there is no information about survivin expression in chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

Aim
Investigating survivin expression in the liver of CHB patients.

Material and methods
This is a single-centre, cross-sectional study. Seventy-five CHB patients and eight control patients were enrolled into the study between 2008 and 2018. Immunohistochemical study was performed by using anti-survivin antibody to evaluate survivin immunoreactivity.

Results
Survivin immunoreactivity was significantly higher in CHB patients compared to controls (p = 0.008). Also, the degree of survivin immunoreactivity was significantly higher in CHB patients (p = 0.027). Between the anti-survivin-positive and anti-survivin-negative groups, baseline laboratory parameters and initial pathology features were not significantly different.

Conclusions
This is the first study evaluating survivin expression in CHB patients. Understanding the possible relationship between survivin expression and HCC development in this population can promote new studies in terms of new therapies and treatment timing.