Clinical significance of serum vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 levels in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Preoperative serum VCAM-1 levels categorized by clinical and laboratory variables

Variables	Median serum VCAM-1 (ng/mL)	P1
Gender
Male (n = 71)	623	0.381
Female (n = 25)	594
Age (yr)
≤ 60 (n = 56)	615	0.460
> 60 (n = 40)	639
HBsAg
Positive (n = 78)	623	0.266
Negative (n = 18)	592
Serum AFP
≤ 20 ng/mL (n = 29)	608	0.737
> 20 ng/mL (n = 67)	623
Serum albumin
≤ 40 g/L (n = 59)	614	0.228
> 40 g/L (n = 37)	634
ICG15
≤ 10% (n = 45)	531	< 0.001
> 10% (n = 51)	667
Platelet count
≤ 150 ×109/L (n = 44)	728	< 0.001
> 150 ×109/L (n = 52)	547

HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; ICG₁₅: Indocyanine green retention at 15 min. ¹By Mann-Whitney U test.

Table 2 Preoperative serum VCAM-1 levels categorized by pathological variables

Variables	Median serum VCAM-1 (ng/mL)	P1
Background liver disease
Normal (n = 7)	462
Chronic hepatitis (n = 39)	548	0.0842
Cirrhosis (n = 50)	704	< 0.001b
Cirrhotic liver
Absent (n = 46)	546	< 0.001
Present (n = 50)	704
Tumor size
≤ 5 cm (n = 35)	686	0.158
> 5 cm (n = 61)	609
Tumor capsule
Absent (n = 66)	597	0.015
Present (n = 30)	736
Venous invasion
Absent (n = 49)	643	0.248
Present (n = 47)	574
Microsatellite nodules
Absent (n = 50)	643	0.359
Present (n = 46)	626
Edmonson grade
I/II (n = 49)	634	0.629
III/IV (n = 47)	642
pTNM stage
I/II (n = 43)	649	0.134
III/IV (n = 53)	592

pTNM: Pathological tumor-node-metastasis. ¹By Mann-Whitney U test;

²Compared with normal nontumorous liver;

^bP < 0.001 compared with both normal liver and chronic hepatitis.