miR-106b promotes cancer progression in hepatitis B virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma patients in the present study¹

Characteristics	Patient numbers n (%)
	1st Cohort (n = 12)	2nd Cohort (n = 108)	Total (n = 120)
Gender
Male	8 (67)	86 (80)	94 (78)
Female	4 (33)	22 (20)	26 (22)
Age (yr)
< 50	0 (0)	15 (14)	15 (13)
≥ 50	12 (100)	93 (86)	105 (87)
Viral infection
HBV	5 (42)	108 (100)	113 (94)
HCV	6 (50)	0 (0)	6 (5)
Non-B/Non-C	1 (8)	0 (0)	1 (1)
HCC differentiation
Well	1 (8)	20 (19)	21 (18)
Moderate	8 (67)	76 (70)	84 (70)
Poor	3 (25)	11 (10)	14 (11)
Unknown		1 (1)	1 (1)
Pathological staging
Stage I	1 (8)	39 (36)	40 (33)
Stage II	9 (75)	51 (47)	60 (50)
Stage III	2 (17)	18 (17)	20 (17)

¹A total of 120 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients were divided into two cohorts. A total of 12 HCC patients with distinct types of HCC were included in the 1^st cohort, and the remaining 108 hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated HCC patients were enrolled in the 2^nd cohort.

Table 2 Correlation analysis of clinical outcomes with miR-106b expression profiles (n = 108)¹

	Patient numbersn(%)	Pvalue	Significant2
Underlying liver disease		0.374	NS
Liver cirrhosis	39 (36)
Non-cirrhosis	69 (64)
HCC differentiation
Well vs moderate	24 (22) vs 74 (69)	0.036	a
Well vs poor	24 (22) vs 9 (8)	0.015	a
Moderate vs poor	74 (69) vs 9 (8)	0.238	NS
Unknown	1
Microvascular invasion		0.856	NS
Yes	30 (28)
No	78 (72)
Tumor number		0.798	NS
Single tumor	87 (81)
> 1 tumor	21 (19)
Tumor size (cm)3		0.812	NS
< 5	72 (67)
≥ 5	36 (33)
Recurrence after surgery		0.687	NS
Yes	58 (54)
No	50 (46)
Pathological staging
Stage I vs stage II	39 (36) vs 51 (47)	0.968	NS
Stage I vs stage III	39 (36) vs 18 (17)	0.625	NS
Stage II and stage III	51 (47) vs 18 (17)	0.575	NS
		Total patients, n = 108

¹The patient characteristics are summarized based on the clinical outcomes. Demographic and clinical features of patients were retrospectively analyzed and correlated with the miR-106b expression profiles;

²The correlation between miR-106b expression values and the patient numbers of each clinical outcome parameter were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests.

^aP < 0.05 was considered significant;

³Tumor size represents the maximum diameter of the tumor nodule. The diameter of the largest nodule was 16 cm. NS: No significant difference; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.