Proteinase-activated receptor 2 promotes tumor cell proliferation and metastasis by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition and predicts poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of the association of prognosis with clinicopathological variables and proteinase-activated receptor 2 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Clinicopathological variable	Hazard ratio	P value
Gender (male vs female)	0.214	0.672
Age (< 60 vs ≥ 60)	0.126	0.763
TNM stage (I-II III-IV)	4.292	0.016a
Tumor size (≤ 5 cm vs >5 cm)	2.193	0.034a
Microvascular invasion (present vs absent)	2.499	0.029a
HBsAg (negative vs positive)	1.072	0.092
Serum AFP level (< 400 ng/mL vs ≥ 400 ng/mL)	3.688	0.023a
PAR2 expression (high vs low)	1.814	0.041a

^aP < 0.05. HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; PAR2: Proteinase-activated receptor 2.