Role of blood AFP mRNA and tumor grade in the preoperative prognostic evaluation of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 2 Multivariate survival analysis in the 50 enrolled HCC patients. Only variables significantly influencing survival at univariate analysis were introduced in the Cox proportional hazard model

Variables	RR (95%CI)	Likelihood-ratio χ2	P
Assessing single variables
Surgery	2.72 (1.59-5.03)	14.07	0.0002
AFP mRNA	2.00 (0.90-4.82)	2.83	NS
Moderately or poorly differentiated grade	1.20 (0.55-2.41)	0.23	NS
Gross vascular invasion	0.86 (0.48-1.59)	0.24	NS
Performance status >1	1.21(0.64-2.46)	0.31	NS
Combining tumor related variables
Surgery	5.84 (2.23-17.32)	13.23	0.0003
1Early HCC	5.84 (2.23-17.32)	13.6	0.0002
Performance status >1	1.18 (0.41-3.09)	0.11	NS

RR: risk ratio; CI: confidence interval.

¹AFP mRNA negative and well-differentiated HCC without gross vascular invasion.