Patients and specimens

A total of 84 paired cancerous and matched adjacent normal tissue specimens were collected from patients who were diagnosed with HCC by histopathology in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from 2008 to 2012. Tissue samples were collected immediately in liquid nitrogen and then stored in −80°C for further test. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, and informed consent was obtained from all patients. Clinicopathological features of all patients are summarized in Table 1.

The Relationship Between DNER Expression and the Clinicopathological Characteristics in HCC

DNER, Delta/Notch-like EGF-related receptor; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma.