Table 3 Correlation of leptin expression with clinicopathological characteristics of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 68).

Variables	n	Leptin
		Low	High	p Value*
Liver cirrhosis				0.085
Negative	39	12	27
Positive	27	14	13
Vascular invasion				0.230
Negative	46	16	30
Positive	22	11	11
Capsular invasion				0.110
Negative	48	22	26
Positive	20	5	15
α‐fetoprotein (ng/ml)				0.273
<200	42	17	15
⩾200	16	4	12
Tumour size (cm)				0.457
<5	39	14	25
⩾5	29	13	16
Tumour grade				0.361
I	12	4	8
II	48	18	30
III	8	5	3
Tumour stage				0.298
I or II	50	18	32
III or IV	18	9	9
MVD				0.032
Low	37	19	18
High	31	8	23
Ki‐67				0.979
Low (S1 or S2)	53	21	32
High (S3 or S4)	15	6	9

MVD, microvessel density.

S1, ⩽25% positive cells; S2, 26–50% positive cells; S3, 51–75% positive cells; S4, ⩾76% positive cells.

*By χ² test.