Figure 2. The association between preoperative serum CRP and the risk of HCC recurrence following curative hepatectomy.

(a) CRP and ER^a. A nonlinear relationship between CRP and risk of ER was observed after adjusting for confounding factors. (b) CRP and LR^b. A linear relationship between CRP and risk of LR was observed after adjusting for confounding factors. ^a: Adjusted for age, maximal tumor dimension, invasion to the portal vein and histological differentiation. ^b: Adjusted for age, cirrhosis, maximal tumor dimension and tumor number.