Table 2. Association between MEX3A expression and clinical characteristics in liver cancer patients.

Clinical characteristics			MEX3A expression
	Variable	No. of patients	High	%	Low	%	χ2	p-value
Age	<55	117	51	43.59	66	25.88	10.8573	0.001
	>=55	255	66	56.41	189	74.12
Gender	Female	121	43	36.75	78	30.47	1.1741	0.279
	Male	252	74	63.25	178	69.53
Histological type	Fibrolamellar Carcinoma	3	0	0	3	1.17	1.8006	0.547
	Hepatocellular Carcinoma	363	114	97.44	249	97.27
	Hepatocholangiocarcinoma (Mixed)	7	3	2.56	4	1.56
Histologic grade	G1	55	10	8.7	45	17.79	20.0434	0.000
	G2	178	48	41.74	130	51.38
	G3	123	48	41.74	75	29.64
	G4	12	9	7.83	3	1.19
stage	I	172	48	43.64	124	51.88	2.1216	0.512
	II	87	30	27.27	57	23.85
	III	85	30	27.27	55	23.01
	IV	5	2	1.82	3	1.26
T classification	T1	182	49	41.88	133	52.36	4.9613	0.253
	T2	95	35	29.91	60	23.62
	T3	80	27	23.08	53	20.87
	T4	13	6	5.13	7	2.76
	TX	1	0	0	1	0.39
N classification	N0	253	86	73.5	167	65.49	3.4688	0.135
	N1	4	2	1.71	2	0.78
	NX	115	29	24.79	86	33.73
M classification	M0	267	88	75.21	179	69.92	2.0953	0.304
	M1	4	2	1.71	2	0.78
	MX	102	27	23.08	75	29.3
radiation therapy	NO	340	106	98.15	234	97.5	0	1.000
	Yes	8	2	1.85	6	2.5
Residual tumor	R0	326	97	84.35	229	91.24	5.1533	0.134
	R1	17	7	6.09	10	3.98
	R2	1	0	0	1	0.4
	RX	22	11	9.57	11	4.38
Vital status	Deceased	130	55	47.01	75	29.3	10.3281	0.001
	Living	243	62	52.99	181	70.7

Notes.

% represents the distribution of different clinical features in the single MEX3A expression group P-value in bold represent significant clinical significance (p < 0.05).