Table 1.
Characteristics of Patients in the Study
| Variable | Overall n = 155 | Study Groups | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low DUSP‐9 n = 77 | High DUSP‐9 n = 78 | P Value | ||
| Preoperative | ||||
| Sex, male (%) | 123 (79.4) | 66 (85.7) | 57 (73.1) | 0.05 |
| Age, years (IQR) | 65.0 (58.4‐71.9) | 63.5 (56.2‐70.1) | 66.3 (58.8‐74.4) | 0.14 |
| BMI, kg/m2 (IQR) | 25.2 (21.9‐28.7) | 25.2 (22.4‐28.1) | 25.8 (21.8‐29.4) | 0.77 |
| Etiology liver disease (%) | 0.08 | |||
| Hepatitis C | 41 (26.5) | 17 (22.1) | 24 (30.8) | |
| Hepatitis B | 69 (44.5) | 41 (53.2) | 28 (35.9) | |
| Alcohol | 6 (3.9) | 4 (5.2) | 2 (2.6) | |
| NASH | 6 (3.9) | 3 (3.9) | 3 (3.8) | |
| Other | 5 (3.2) | 0 (0) | 5 (6.4) | |
| None | 28 (18.1) | 12 (15.6) | 16 (20.5) | |
| MELD (IQR) | 7 (6‐8) | 7.0 (6.4‐8.1) | 7.0 (6.4‐8.3) | 0.82 |
| Child‐Pugh (%) | ||||
| A | 155 (100) | 77 (100) | 78 (100) | ‐ |
| B | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | |
| Tumor biggest size, cm (IQR) | 4.5 (3.3‐6.9) | 4.5 (3.3‐6.8) | 4.4 (3.3‐7.0) | 0.88 |
| Tumor number (IQR) | 1 (1‐4) | 1 (1‐1) | 1 (1‐1) | 0.85 |
| AFP, ng/dL (IQR) | 13 (3‐333) | 18 (3‐368) | 8 (4‐335) | 0.81 |
| DUSP9 (fold change) | 5.0 (1.7‐17.4) | 1.7 (0.5‐2.5) | 17.0 (8.4‐44.1) | <0.001 |
| Pathology | ||||
| Tumor biggest size, cm (IQR) | 5 (3.5‐7.5) | 4.8 (3.3‐7.0) | 5.2 (3.9‐8.4) | 0.16 |
| Tumor number (IQR) | 1 (1‐22) | 1 (1‐1) | 1 (1‐1) | 0.59 |
| R0, yes (%) | 145 (93.5) | 73 (94.8) | 72 (92.3) | 0.53 |
| Microvascular invasion, yes (%) | 90 (58.1) | 43 (55.8) | 47 (60.3) | 0.58 |
| Macrovascular invasion, yes (%) | 14 (9.0) | 7 (9.1) | 7 (9.0) | 0.98 |
| Tumoral differentiation (%) | 0.72 | |||
| Well | 6 (3.9) | 2 (2.6) | 4 (5.1) | |
| Moderate | 127 (81.9) | 64 (83.1) | 63 (80.8) | |
| Poor | 22 (14.2) | 11 (14.3) | 11 (14.1) | |
Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; MELD, Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease; NASH, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; R0, negative resection margin.