The stromal-tumor amplifying STC1-Notch1 feedforward signal promotes the stemness of hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 The expression of STC1 related to clinicopathological features in HCC patients

Clinical features	High STC1 (n = 38)	Low STC1 (n = 34)	P-value
Age
Young (≤ median, 52)	23	19	0.83
Old (> medium, 52)	15	15
Gender
Male	32	29	0.35
Female	6	5
Overall survival, median, months	18.5 months	37 months	0.0051**
HBsAg
Negative	10	7	0.28
Positive	28	27
Serum AFP (ng/ml)
Low (≤ 20)	15	12	0.32
High (> 20)	23	22
Differentiation status
Well differentiation	9	13	0.08
Moderately to poorly differentiation	29	21
Tumor size
Small (≤ 5 cm)	7	10	0.17
Large (> 5 cm)	31	24
TNM stage^a
Early stage (I–II)	27	26	0.011*
Advanced stage (III–IV)	11	8
Lymph node metastasis
Absence	29	30	0.75
Presence	9	4
Vascular infiltration
Absence	30	32	0.26
Presence	8	2

^aAJCC/UICC T staging system
^*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, significant difference (χ² test and Fisher’s exact test)

ISSN: 1479-5876