Table 1.

Correlation between CTSC expression and patients’ clinicopathological factors

Variable	CTSC expression			p-value
	No. (n=122)	High (n=62)	Low (n=60)
Age (yr)
≤ 50	56	29	27	0.884
> 50	66	33	33
Sex
Female	13	8	5	0.413
Male	109	54	55
HBsAg
Negative	14	6	8	0.526
Positive	108	56	52
Cirrhosis
Absent	27	9	18	0.039
Present	95	53	42
Ascites
Absent	106	49	57	0.009
Present	16	13	3
AFP (μg/L)
< 400	56	21	35	0.005
≥ 400	65	41	24
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 5	46	25	21	0.544
> 5	76	37	39
No. of tumors
Solitary	80	43	37	0.372
Multiple	42	19	23
Tumor capsule
Complete	73	33	40	0.130
Incomplete	49	29	20
PVTT
Absent	96	49	47	0.925
Present	26	13	13
Differentiation
Ⅰ-Ⅱ	101	49	52	0.264
Ⅲ-Ⅳ	21	13	8

CTSC, cathepsin C; HBsAg, hepatitis B virus surface antigen; AFP, α-fetoprotein; PVTT, portal vein tumor thrombus.