Clinical utility of telomeres as diagnostic and short-term prognostic markers in loco-regional treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 8 Correlations between telomere length (× 10³) and age, tumor size, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease and Child-Pugh scores before and after treatment in the hepatocellular carcinoma and chronic liver disease groups (Spearman correlation test)

Telomere length with variables		HCC group (total = 30)			CLD group (total = 30)
		Before	After	Change
Age (years)	r value	-0.100			-0.047
	P value	0.599			0.805
MELD score	r value	-0.027	-0.130	0.074	-0.174
	P value	0.887	0.493	0.696	0.357
Child-Pugh score	r value	-0.027	0.028	-0.129	0.182
	P value	0.888	0.882	0.496	0.335
Tumor size (cm2)	r value	-0.157	0.130	0.292
	P value	0.408	0.659	0.311

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; CLD: Chronic liver disease; MELD: Model for End-Stage Liver Disease.