A Noninvasive Prediction Nomogram for Lymph Node Metastasis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Serum Long Noncoding RNAs

Table 2

Clinicopathological characteristics of the study cohorts.

Variable	Training cohort				Validation cohort
	All	NLNM	LNM	P	All	NLNM	LNM	P
	(n=157)	(n=137)	(n=20)		(n=85)	(n=76)	(n=9)
Age
≤ 51	69	58	11	0.339	39	33	6	0.290
> 51	88	79	9		46	43	3
Gender
male	131	112	19	0.201	65	58	7	1
female	26	25	1		20	18	2
HBsAg
negative	12	9	3	0.183	6	6	0	1
positive	145	128	17		79	70	9
HCV-Ab
negative	154	134	20	1	81	75	6	0.003
positive	3	3	0		4	1	3
AFP, ng/mL
≤ 20	44	37	7	0.438	27	25	2	0.712
> 20	113	100	13		58	51	7
Tumor differentiation
I-II	118	104	14	0.584	68	61	7	1
III-IV	39	33	6		17	15	2
Child-Pugh score
A	152	132	20	1	83	75	8	0.202
B	5	5	0		2	1	1
Intrahepatic metastasis
no	114	101	13	0.428	66	61	5	0.108
yes	43	36	7		19	15	4
Tumor size, cm
≤ 5	89	79	10	0.630	55	48	7	0.483
> 5	68	58	10		30	28	2
Vascular invasion
no	117	107	10	0.012	59	54	5	0.446
yes	40	30	10		26	22	4
BCLC stage
0-A	129	116	13	0.054	74	69	5	0.014
B-C	28	21	7		11	7	4
ALT, U/L
≤ 40	74	63	11	0.481	41	36	5	0.733
> 40	83	74	9		44	40	4
γ-GT, U/L
≤ 50	35	30	5	0.776	18	16	2	1
> 50	122	107	15		67	60	7
Liver cirrhosis
no	18	16	2	1	9	9	0	0.588
yes	139	121	18		76	67	9
Tumor number
single	108	93	15	0.613	64	60	4	0.037
multiple	49	44	5		21	16	5
Distant metastasis
no	97	84	13	0.810	55	53	2	0.008
yes	60	53	7		30	23	7
ENST00000418803
low expression	51	37	14	< 0.001	30	24	6	0.061
high expression	106	100	6		55	52	3
Lnc-EPS15L1-2:1
low expression	89	86	3	< 0.001	52	49	3	0.084
high expression	68	51	17		33	27	6
Lnc-ZNF35-4:1
low expression	55	41	14	< 0.001	27	20	7	0.004
high expression	102	96	6		58	56	2

HBsAg: hepatitis B surface antigen; HCV-Ab: hepatitis C virus antibody; AFP: a-fetoprotein; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; γ-GT: γ-glutamyl transferase; BCLC stage: Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage; : significance values.