EPCAM
Overview
EPCAM (Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule) is a cell-surface glycoprotein that marks epithelial progenitor and stem-like cells. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), EPCAM expression defines a stem-cell/progenitor subpopulation with distinct biological behavior and adverse prognosis, and is part of a validated prognostic immunohistochemical panel.
Alterations observed in the corpus
- EPCAM, KRT19, and GPC3 form a stem-cell/progenitor-cell signature; expression is prognostic in subsets of HCC PMID:24735922
- EPCAM overexpression marks the S2 progenitor-cell proliferation subclass in HCC (~50% of tumors), associated with AFP and IGF2 co-expression, HBV aetiology, and poor outcomes. PMID:24798001
- Germline loss of EPCAM (exons 8–9 deletion) confers Lynch syndrome gastric cancer risk; included in the recommended multigene germline panel for familial non-hereditary gastric cancer. PMID:24816255
- EPCAM is an epithelial surface antigen targeted by autologous CAR-T therapy in NPC (n=12, ORR 16.7%) in platinum-refractory recurrent/metastatic disease. PMID:24952746
- Upregulated as a stemness marker in GBC cells downstream of SEMA7A/ITGB1 signaling; used as a readout of cancer stem-like cell induction by CAF-derived SEMA7A PMID:24997986
Cancer types (linked)
- HCC — stem-cell marker with prognostic significance in HCC subsets PMID:24735922
Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity
- Co-expressed with KRT19 and GPC3 as a progenitor-cell signature in HCC PMID:24735922
Therapeutic relevance
Open questions
- Optimal IHC scoring threshold and prognostic independence from standard staging are not uniformly defined.
Sources
This page was processed by entity-page-writer on 2026-05-11. - PMID:24798001
This page was processed by entity-page-writer on 2026-05-11. - PMID:24816255
This page was processed by entity-page-writer on 2026-05-11. - PMID:24952746
This page was processed by entity-page-writer on 2026-05-11. - PMID:24997986
This page was processed by wiki-cli on 2026-05-11.