DEC1 nuclear expression: A marker of differentiation grade in hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Differentiated embryo chondrocyte 1 nuclear expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and adjacent non-tumor tissues n (%)

	Negative	Positive
HCC (63)	27 (42.9)	36 (57.1)a
Adjacent non-tumor tissues (63)	46 (73.0)	17 (27.0)

^aP < 0.05 vs adjacent non-tumor tissues. HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.

Table 2 Correlation between nuclear differentiated embryo chondrocyte 1 protein expression and clinicopathologic features of hepatocellular carcinoma

Clinicopathologic features	n	Nuclear DEC1 protein expression		P value
		Negative	Positive
Sex
Male	52	23	29	0.8861
Female	11	4	7
Age (yr)
< 56	31	15	16	0.383
≥ 56	32	12	20
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 5	28	11	17	0.571
> 5	30	14	16
Pathological grade
Grade (I)	18	1	17	0.000
Grade (II-III)	45	26	19
Venous infiltration
Absent	9	2	7	0.0702
Present	10	7	3
No. tumor nodules
< 3	49	22	27	0.7811
≥ 3	9	3	6
Hepatitis B virus infection
Yes	51	22	29	0.8421
No	3	2	1
Cirrhosis
Yes	47	21	26	0.616
No	16	6	10
α-fetoprotein level (ng/mL)
> 20	40	18	22	0.713
≤ 20	20	8	12

¹Corrected χ² analysis;

²Fisher’s exact test.

Table 3 Correlation between differentiated embryo chondrocyte 1 nuclear expression and hepatocellular carcinoma differentiation

Tumor differentiation	DEC1 nuclear expression1		r value	P value
(cases)	Low	High
Well (n = 17)	2	15	0.376	0.024
Moderate (n = 14)	5	9
Poor (n = 5)	3	2

¹Number of cases. DEC1: Differentiated embryo chondrocyte 1.