Table 1.
Correlation of AJUBA expression with patients' clinicopathological features in primary hepatocellular carcinomas
| Variable | AJUBA protein | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All cases | Low expression | High expression | P value* | |
| Age (years) | 0.342 | |||
| ≤ 50 | 84 | 64 (76.2%) | 20 (23.8%) | |
| > 50 | 84 | 69 (82.1%) | 15 (17.9%) | |
| Sex | 0.519 | |||
| Female | 25 | 21 (84.0%) | 4 (16.0%) | |
| Male | 143 | 112 (78.3%) | 31 (21.7%) | |
| HbsAg | 0.321 | |||
| Negative | 11 | 10 (90.9%) | 1 (9.1%) | |
| Positive | 157 | 123 (78.3%) | 34 (21.7%) | |
| AFP (ng/mL) | 0.192 | |||
| ≤20 | 69 | 58 (84.1%) | 11 (15.9%) | |
| >20 | 99 | 75 (75.8%) | 24 (24.2%) | |
| Liver cirrhosis | 0.885 | |||
| No | 99 | 78 (78.8%) | 21 (21.2%) | |
| Yes | 69 | 55 (79.7%) | 14 (20.3%) | |
| Tumor size (cm) | 0.443 | |||
| ≤5 | 72 | 59 (81.9%) | 13 (18.1%) | |
| >5 | 96 | 74 (77.1%) | 22 (22.9%) | |
| Tumor multiplicity | 0.001 | |||
| Single | 131 | 111 (84.7%) | 20 (15.3%) | |
| Multiple | 37 | 22 (59.5%) | 15 (40.5%) | |
| Differentiation | 0.025 | |||
| Well-moderate | 86 | 74 (86.0%) | 12 (14.0%) | |
| Poor-undifferentiated | 82 | 59 (72.0%) | 23 (28.0%) | |
| Stagea | < 0.001 | |||
| I-II | 117 | 102 (87.2%) | 15 (12.8%) | |
| III-IV | 51 | 31 (60.8%) | 20 (39.2%) | |
| Vascular invasion | 0.027 | |||
| Absent | 104 | 88 (84.6%) | 16 (15.4%) | |
| Present | 64 | 45 (70.3%) | 19 (29.7%) | |
| Relapse | 0.003 | |||
| Absent | 135 | 113 (83.7%) | 22 (16.3%) | |
| Present | 33 | 20 (60.6%) | 13 (39.4%) | |
Notes: a: The 8th edition of the AJCC cancer staging manual; *Chi-square test; Boldface indicates P < 0.05;
Abbreviations: HbsAg, hepatitis B surface antigen; AFP, alpha-fetoprotein.