Synchronous increase of NTS and IL-8 in HCC correlated with worse prognosis and shorten survival of patients after surgery.

<p>The univariate survival analysis between different clinical and pathological parameters of 64 cases of HCC patients was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. A-C). None significant difference of OS was observed between patients with and without history of alcohol consumption(A) or HBV infection(B), and patients at different clinical stages(C). D-J). The relationship between the OS and the expression levels of NTS(D), IL-8(E), MMP-9(H), VEGF(I) and CD68(J) was studied. The univariate survival analysis showed that the expression level of NTS exclusively adversely affected the OS of HCC patients(D), in which the patients bearing NTS⁺ tumors suffered from shorter OS than those bearing NTS⁻ tumors (P = 0.035). The same result was obtained in the patients bearing NTS⁺IL-8⁺ tumors (F) whose OS are 3 folds shorter than the others(P = 0.011). Note: 0: Negative/low expression of certain markers in cancer tissues; 1: Positive expression of certain markers in cancer tissues.