Figure 2. Immunohistochemical analyses of WWP1 protein expression in primary hepatocellular carcinoma surgical specimens and Kaplan–Meier survival analyses of the primary HCC patients (n = 149) with high WWP1 expression (n = 95) and low WWP1 expression (n = 54) after resection.

A. Strong WWP1 staining was observed in poorly differentiated HCC, scored as WWP1 (+++). B. Intermediate WWP1 staining in moderately differentiated HCC, scored as WWP1 (++). C. Weak WWP1 staining in poorly differentiated HCC, scored as WWP1 (+). D. WWP1-negative staining in normal liver tissue distant from the tumor, scored as WWP1 (−). E–F. Based on their WWP1 immunostaining scores, HCC patients were divided into low-WWP1 expression (WWP1− or WWP1+) and high-WWP1 expression (WWP1++ or WWP1+++) groups. Overall survival (E) and Progression- Free-Survival (F) of patients in the high-WWP1 group was significantly lower than that of patients in the low-WWP1 group (P < 0.001 for the log-rank test).