Two hundred HCC patients with partial hepatectomy were enrolled as a cohort for observational study. The inclusion criterion was intended curative hepatectomy for HCC patients by image analysis, and the exclusion criteria were unresectable disease, synchronous cancers, recurrent cancers, or distant metastasis. The study endpoint was 30 March 2019, and tumor staging was based on the 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM staging system for HCC

To determine the role of SOX4 in tumor progression in patients with HCC, we examined SOX4 expression through immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining of 200 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) HCC specimens . The SOX4 high group of patients was associated with positive etiology of hepatitis B virus (P = 0.044), tumor size >5 cm (P = 0.014), thrombus formation (P = 0.012), higher microvessel density (MVD) (P = 0.012) in tumor lesions, and distant metastasis (P <0.001).

Cox regression analysis showed that patients with elderly age (P <0.001), higher ⍺-fetal protein (AFP) (P = 0.045), presence of cirrhosis (P = 0.008), and SOX4 high in tumor specimen (P = 0.042) were independent risk factors . The SOX4 high group performed significantly worse regarding overall survival (OS) (P = 0.043) and disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.019) based on the Kaplan-Meier analysis.

Inclusion Criteria:

subjects with pathologic diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and curative partial hepatectomies -

Exclusion Criteria:

history of different malignant disease, subject cannot be treated with curative surgery -

subjects with pathologic diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma