Patient samples

Usage of human pathological tissues and clinical data was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Shanghai Cancer Center of Fudan University (Shanghai, China) (Approval No. 050432–4-1212B). Written consent for all patients conformed to the ethical guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration. A total of 180 patients with primary HCC resected between 2010 and 2012 in the Department of Hepatic Surgery, Shanghai Cancer Center of Fudan University (Shanghai, China) were collected. The patients were excluded if they had other malignant tumor before, or histories of adjuvant or neo-adjuvant therapies including targeted therapies. Clinicopathological data, including age, gender, tumor size (longest diameter), tumor location, Borrmann classification, differentiation, and TNM stage, were collected from medical history for each patient. Tumor stage was reassessed according to the seventh edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM classification. OS was defined as the time from the date of surgery to the date of death or last visit.