Table 1. Correlation between HMGB2 expression and HCC clinicopathological features.
| Clinicopathologic features | No. of patient | HMGB2 expression | χ2 | P value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (n=32) | High (n=30) | |||||
| Age (years) | ||||||
| ≤50 | 47 | 26 | 21 | 1.069 | 0.301 | |
| >50 | 15 | 6 | 9 | |||
| Gender | ||||||
| Male | 40 | 22 | 18 | 0.518 | 0.472 | |
| Female | 22 | 10 | 12 | |||
| Etiology | ||||||
| HBV infection | 46 | 26 | 20 | 2.978 | 0.226 | |
| HCV infection | 13 | 4 | 9 | |||
| Alcohol | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Background liver pathology | ||||||
| Normal liver | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0.495 | 0.781 | |
| Chronic hepatitis | 20 | 11 | 9 | |||
| Liver cirrhosis | 39 | 19 | 20 | |||
| Serum AFP (ng/mL) | ||||||
| ≤400 | 45 | 28 | 17 | 7.397 | 0.007 | |
| >400 | 17 | 4 | 13 | |||
| Tumor size (cm) | ||||||
| ≤5 | 41 | 29 | 12 | 17.717 | <0.001 | |
| >5 | 21 | 3 | 18 | |||
| Intrahepatic metastasis | ||||||
| Present | 51 | 30 | 21 | 5.984 | 0.014 | |
| Absent | 11 | 2 | 9 | |||
| Vascular invasion | ||||||
| No | 43 | 27 | 16 | 7.020 | 0.008 | |
| Yes | 19 | 5 | 14 | |||
| Tumor encapsulation | ||||||
| Yes | 24 | 14 | 10 | 0.708 | 0.401 | |
| No | 38 | 18 | 20 | |||
| Early recurrence | ||||||
| No | 33 | 21 | 12 | 4.084 | 0.043 | |
| Yes | 29 | 11 | 18 | |||
| TNM stage | ||||||
| I | 35 | 19 | 16 | 0.230 | 0.632 | |
| II + III | 27 | 13 | 14 | |||
Chi-squared tests and Fisher’s exact tests were employed to analyzed the clinical information. HMGB2, high mobility group box 2; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HCV, hepatitis C virus; AFP, α-fetoprotein; TNM, tumor, lymph node and metastasis.