Table 1. Clinicopathological factors and the expression of Nodal in 96 patients with HCC.

Characteristics	Number of cases	Nodal expression		?2	P value
		low	high
Age (years)
≤55	42	14	28	0.922	0.337
>55	54	12	42
Gender
Male	78	23	55	1.217	0.270
Female	18	3	15
Tumor size (cm)
≤5	60	8	52	15.318	0.000
>5	36	18	18
Tumor nodules
Single	41	9	32	0.954	0.329
Multiple	55	17	38
Tumor capsula
Complete	50	15	35	1.676	0.196
None	46	11	35
AFP (ng/ml)
≤400	47	17	30	3.850	0.049
>400	49	9	40
ICGR15 (%)
≤10	73	15	58	6.590	0.010
>10	23	11	12
HBsAg
Positive	78	19	59	1.563	0.211
Negative	18	7	11
Liver cirrhosis
present	81	21	60	0.352	0.553
absent	15	5	10
Child-Pugh grade
A	74	13	61	2.078	0.149
B	22	13	9
Edmondson grade
I–II	48	16	32	1.899	0.168
III–IV	48	10	38
TNM stage
I–II	43	14	29	1.182	0.277
III–IV	53	12	41
Vascular invasion
present	62	8	54	17.824	0.000
absent	34	18	16
Status of metastasis
present	26	1	25	8.203	0.004
absent	70	25	45