Table 2.
Correlation between H19 RNA methylation level and clinicopathologic characteristics in HCC patients.
| Methylation level | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | + | − | χ2 | p value | |
| Age | |||||
| ≥55 | 28 | 8 | 20 | 0.007 | 1 |
| <55 | 27 | 8 | 19 | ||
| Gender | |||||
| Male | 44 | 13 | 31 | 0.022 | 1 |
| Female | 11 | 3 | 8 | ||
| Metastasis | |||||
| Yes | 14 | 3 | 11 | 0.535 | 0.734 |
| No | 41 | 13 | 28 | ||
| Liver cirrhosis | |||||
| Yes | 43 | 12 | 31 | 0.134 | 0.73 |
| No | 12 | 4 | 8 | ||
| AFP | |||||
| ≤25 | 18 | 4 | 14 | 0.821 | 0.53 |
| >25 | 35 | 12 | 23 | ||
| Tumor size | |||||
| ≤8 | 30 | 10 | 20 | 0.576 | 0.556 |
| >8 | 25 | 6 | 19 | ||
| Anti-HCV | |||||
| Positive | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0.035 | 1 |
| Negative | 51 | 15 | 36 | ||
| HBsAg | |||||
| Positive | 45 | 15 | 30 | 2.159 | 0.25 |
| Negative | 10 | 1 | 9 | ||
| Differentiation | |||||
| High | 15 | 1 | 14 | 18.675 | 0.000* |
| Moderate | 18 | 2 | 16 | ||
| Low | 18 | 12 | 6 | ||
The patients were separated into two groups according to the difference of the methylation level of H19 RNA between the HCC tissues and matched non-cancerous liver tissues. The patients with difference of methylation rate over 10% were considered as positive (+), while others are negative (−).
*p < 0.05 indicates statistical significance by χ2 test.