human cancers. HDGF Overexpression can induce tumorigenesis in vivo by stimulating expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), as well as directly angiogenic activity. 12 Furthermore, a relation- ship between increased HDGF expression and poor outcome of patients has been reported for hepatocellu- lar, gastric, pancreatic and lung cancers. 5–7,10 Knock- down of HDGF was reported to suppress the proliferation of hepatoma cells and inhibit the anchor- age-independent growth of human lung cancer cells. 14,15 HDGF is believed to be an anticancer agent in these cancers. However, a correlation between HDGR expression and cervical SCC has not yet been reported. Our findings suggest that HDGF could be a novel prognostic factor for cervical cancer, and may contribute to the diagnosis of the disease and conse- quently improve the survival rate. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate an increase in HDGF expression in patients with SCC as compared with normal cases and its potential prognostic utility for cervical SCC. A higher expression level of HDGF indicated disease development in cervical cancer. acknowledgement We would like to thank Ms Meihong Yu and Ms Yuting Hu for their assistance in recruiting the subjects. Feng Ye Qi Cheng Caiyun Zhou 1 Junyan Ma Huaizeng Chen Women’s Reproductive Health Laboratory of Zhejiang Province, and 1 Department of Pathology, Women’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China 1. Nakamura H, Kambe H, Egawa T et al. Partial purification and characterization of human hepatoma-derived growth factor. Clin. Chim. Acta 1989; 183; 273–284. 2. Abouzied MM, Baader SL, Dietz F et al. 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Hepatoma-derived growth factor is a novel prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma. Ann. Surg. Oncol. 2006; 13; 159–167. 8. Chang KC, Tai MH, Lin JW et al. Hepatoma-derived growth factor is a novel prognostic factor for gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Int. J. Cancer 2007; 121; 1059–1065. 9. Lepourcelet M, Tou L, Cai L et al. Insights into developmental mechanisms and cancers in the mammalian intestine derived from serial analysis of gene expression and study of the hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF). Development 2005; 132; 415–427. 10. Yamamoto S, Tomita Y, Hoshida Y et al. Expression of hepatoma- derived growth factor is correlated with lymph node metastasis and prognosis of gastric carcinoma. Clin. Cancer Res. 2006; 12; 117–122. 11. Yamamoto S, Tomita Y, Hoshida Y et al. Expression level of hepatoma-derived growth factor correlates with tumor recur- rence of esophageal carcinoma. Ann. Surg. Oncol. 2007; 14; 2141–2149. 12. Okuda Y, Nakamura H, Yoshida K et al. Hepatoma-derived growth factor induces tumorigenesis in vivo through both direct angiogenic activity and induction of vascular endothelial growth factor. Cancer Sci. 2003; 94; 1034–1041. 13. Kishima Y, Yamamoto H, Izumoto Y et al. Hepatoma-derived growth factor stimulates cell growth after translocation to the nucleus by nuclear localization signals. J. Biol. Chem. 2002; 277; 10315–10322. 14. Ren H, Chu Z, Mao L. Antibodies targeting hepatoma-derived growth factor as a novel strategy in treating lung cancer. Mol. Cancer Ther. 2009; 8; 1106–1112. 15. Zhang J, Ren H, Yuan P et al. Down-regulation of hepatoma- derived growth factor inhibits anchorage-independent growth and invasion of non-small cell lung cancer cells. Cancer Res. 2006; 66; 18–23. Expression of the helicase-like transcription factor and its variants during carcinogenesis of the uterine cervix: implications for tumour progression DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2011.03843.x Sir: The helicase-like transcription factor (HLTF) be- longs to the family of SWI ⁄ SNF (mating-type switch- ing ⁄ sucrose-non-fermenting) proteins involved in chromatin remodelling. HLTF is also involved in post- replication DNA repair, 1,2 and its promoter is hyper- methylated in various proportions of human cancers. 3 Recently, we showed that HLTF expression was signif- icantly increased in head and neck carcinomas as compared with normal or dysplastic epithelial tissue. 4 High levels of HLTF expression were associated with rapid recurrence rates in a series of 100 patients with 984 Correspondence Ó 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Histopathology, 58, 982–998.