Table I.

Association of long non-coding RNA LOC728290 expression with clinicopathological characteristics of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

		LOC728290 expression
Characteristic	Total	Low	High	P-value
Sex				0.203
Male	51	28	23
Female	14	5	9
Age, years				0.924
<60	41	21	20
≥60	24	12	12
Tumor size, cm				0.267
<5	28	12	16
≥5	37	21	16
AFP, ng/ml				0.033a
<20	26	9	17
≥20	39	24	15
Histological grade				0.136
Well	2	2	0
Moderately/poorly	56	26	30
Clinical stage				0.236
I and II	47	26	21
III and IV	18	7	11
Tumor number				0.087
Solitary	54	30	24
Multiple	11	3	8
Alcohol consumption				0.267
Yes	30	13	17
No	35	20	15
Smoking status				0.165
Yes	23	9	14
No	42	24	18
HBV				0.156
Yes	39	17	22
No	26	16	10
Recurrence				0.337
Yes	22	13	9
No	43	20	23
PVTT				0.172
Yes	33	14	19
No	32	19	13
Microvascular invasion				0.022a
Yes	47	28	19
No	18	5	13
Liver cirrhosis				0.221
Absence	35	14	21
Presence	25	14	11

Low expression of LOC728290 was identified to be significantly associated with microvascular invasion (P=0.022) and serum AFP (P=0.033). However, LOC728290 expression was not significantly associated with sex, age, tumor size, liver cirrhosis, histological grade, alcohol consumption, smoking status, HBV, recurrence, PVTT and clinical stage (P>0.05). AFP, α-fetoprotein; HBV, hepatitis B virus; PVTT, portal vein tumor thrombosis.

^aP<0.05.