Hepatocellular carcinoma cells remodel the pro-metastatic tumour microenvironment through recruitment and activation of fibroblasts via paracrine Egfl7 signaling

Table 1 Association between α-SMA expression and clinicopathologic variables of HCC patients in the training and validation cohort

Clinicopathologic variables	No	Training cohort α-SMA expression levels			No	Validation cohort α-SMA expression levels
Clinicopathologic variables	No	Low (n = 70)	High (n = 106)	P value	No	Low (n = 42)	High (n = 57)	P value
Gender
Female	30	11	19	0.703	24	11	13	0.698
Male	146	59	87		75	31	44
Age (years)
≤ 60	133	53	80	0.971	84	35	49	0.718
> 60	43	17	26		15	7	8
AFP (ng/mL)
≤ 20	65	24	41	0.554	31	14	17	0.710
> 20	111	46	65		68	28	40
HBsAg
Negative	54	20	34	0.622	23	11	12	0.550
Positive	122	50	72		76	31	45
Liver cirrhosis
Absence	73	27	46	0.525	43	18	25	0.921
Presence	103	43	60		56	24	32
Child–Pugh classification
A	155	59	96	0.208	89	38	51	0.870
B	21	11	10		10	4	6
Tumor number
Solitary	69	45	24	< 0.001	40	25	15	0.001
Multiple	107	25	82		59	17	42
Tumor size
≤ 5 cm	61	28	33	0.226	41	19	22	0.507
> 5 cm	115	42	73		58	23	35
Capsular formation
Absence	103	44	59	0.343	67	28	39	0.854
Presence	73	26	47		32	14	18
Microvascular invasion
Absence	76	39	37	0.006	39	22	17	0.023
Presence	100	31	69		60	20	40
Edmondson-Steiner grade
Low grade (I and II)	80	41	39	0.005	49	27	22	0.012
High grade (III and IV)	96	29	67		50	15	35
TNM Stage
I	55	30	25	0.007	37	26	11	< 0.001
II- III	121	40	81		62	16	46
BCLC Stage
0-A	52	32	20	< 0.001	34	21	13	0.005
B-C	124	38	86		65	21	44

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