Stemness CD24 activation promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression via an immune escape mechanism

Table 3 Clinicopathological characteristics of serum clusters of differentiation 24 levels in hepatocellular carcinoma (mean ± SD)

Group	n	CD24 (μg/L)	t value	P value
Age (years)
≤ 60	66	99.7 ± 27.5	0.467	0.641
> 60	63	97.3 ± 30.8
Gender
Male	93	100.8 ± 30.5	1.443	0.502
Female	36	92.6 ± 24.4
AFP (ng/mL)
< 400	91	98.9 ± 29.1	0.763	0.447
≥ 400	38	94.6 ± 29.4
HBV infection
Absent	32	88.0 ± 18.3	2.773	0.006
Present	97	103.7 ± 30.2
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 5	73	88.5 ± 21.4	4.795	< 0.001
> 5	56	111.4 ± 32.7
Gross classification
Unifocal	85	88.8 ± 19.9	6.096	< 0.001
Multifocal	44	117.4 ± 34.9
Periportal embolus
Absent	119	96.8 ± 28.9	2.358	0.02
Present	10	119.2 ± 28.3
Lymph node metastasis
Without	59	91.4 ± 20.4	2.675	0.008
With	70	104.8 ± 33.6
Differentiation
Poor	35	118.9 ± 35.5	5.364	< 0.001
Moderate & well	94	90.9 ± 22.1
Extra-hepatic metastasis
Without	97	94.6 ± 25.6	2.743	0.007
With	32	110.5 ± 35.8
TNM stage
I-II	71	91.8 ± 27.8	2.713	0.008
III-IV	58	106.8 ± 35.0
Child-Pugh classification
A	97	83.2 ± 25.1	5.592	< 0.001
B & C	32	114.7 ± 34.3

AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; CD: Clusters of differentiation; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis.