Table 1.
The correlation between FIRRE expression and clinicopathologic characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma
| Characteristics | n=80 | FIRRE expression | P (chi-square test) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (n=40) | High (n=40) | |||
| Age (years) | ||||
| <50 | 35 | 19 | 16 | 0.499 |
| ≥50 | 45 | 21 | 24 | |
| Sex | ||||
| Male | 63 | 33 | 30 | 0.412 |
| Female | 17 | 7 | 10 | |
| HBV | ||||
| No | 28 | 18 | 10 | 0.061 |
| Yes | 52 | 22 | 30 | |
| Serum AFP level (ng/mL) | ||||
| <20 | 27 | 16 | 11 | 0.237 |
| ≥20 | 53 | 24 | 29 | |
| Tumor size (cm) | ||||
| <5 | 26 | 18 | 8 | 0.017* |
| ≥5 | 54 | 22 | 32 | |
| No. of tumor nodules | ||||
| 1 | 65 | 34 | 31 | 0.390 |
| ≥2 | 15 | 6 | 9 | |
| Cirrhosis | ||||
| No | 35 | 21 | 14 | 0.115 |
| Yes | 45 | 19 | 26 | |
| Venous infiltration | ||||
| No | 44 | 25 | 19 | 0.178 |
| Yes | 36 | 15 | 21 | |
| Edmondson-Steiner grade | ||||
| I+II | 57 | 31 | 26 | 0.217 |
| III+IV | 23 | 9 | 14 | |
| TNM stage | ||||
| I+II | 63 | 36 | 27 | 0.014* |
| III+IV | 17 | 4 | 13 | |
HBV, hepatitis B virus; AFP, alpha-fetoprotein; TNM, tumor-node-metastasis.
The “low” or “high” expression of FIRRE level was defined according to the cut-off value, which was defined as the median value of the cohort of patients tested.
*Statistically significant.