Table 1. Clinicopathological characteristics of the study population.

Variable	Training cohort				Validation cohort
	All (n =192)	NLNM (n =169)	LNM (n =23)	P	All (n =209)	NLNM (n =186)	LNM (n =23)	P
Age
≤ 51	94	82	12	0.742	102	88	14	0.220
>51	98	87	11		107	98	9
Gender
male	168	149	19	0.674	182	163	19	0.728
female	24	20	4		27	23	4
HBsAg
negative	53	46	7	0.746	54	49	5	0.634
positive	139	123	16		155	137	18
HCV-Ab
negative	188	165	23	0.457	205	182	23	0.479
positive	4	4	0		4	4	0
AFP
≤20	49	40	9	0.111	57	49	8	0.391
>20	143	129	14		152	137	15
ALT
≤40	112	100	12	0.523	121	108	13	0.888
>40	80	69	11		88	78	10
γ-GT
≤50	69	62	7	0.558	74	68	6	0.322
>50	123	107	16		135	118	17
Liver cirrhosis
no	31	27	4	1.000	33	28	5	0.599
yes	161	142	19		176	158	18
Child-Pugh score
A	190	167	23	0.601	207	184	23	0.618
B	2	2	0		2	2	0
Tumor differentiation
I–II	140	124	16	0.700	153	135	18	0.562
III–IV	52	45	7		56	51	5
Tumor size, cm
≤5	98	87	11	0.742	108	95	13	0.622
>5	94	82	12		101	91	10
Tumor number
single	139	123	16	0.746	153	138	15	0.359
multiple	53	46	7		56	48	8
Tumor encapsulation
complete	98	83	15	0.147	107	93	14	0.325
none	94	86	8		102	93	9
Vascular invasion
no	165	154	11	< 0.001*	164	152	12	0.003*
yes	27	15	12		45	34	11
BCLC stage
0-A	169	156	13	< 0.001*	177	166	11	< 0.001*
B-C	23	13	10		32	20	12
MiR-145
negative	145	138	7	< 0.001*	155	146	9	0.001*
positive	47	31	16		54	40	14
MiR-31
negative	157	147	10	< 0.001*	170	166	4	< 0.001*
positive	35	22	13		39	20	19
MiR-92a
negative	137	132	5	< 0.001*	143	141	2	< 0.001*
positive	55	37	18		66	45	21
MiR-10b
low expression	133	117	16	0.974	144	130	14	0.378
high expression	59	52	7		65	56	9

HBsAg hepatitis B surface antigen, HCV-Ab hepatitis C virus antibody, AFP a-fetoprotein, ALT alanine aminotransferase, γ-GT γ-glutamyl transferase, BCLC stage Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage,* significance values.