The clinicopathological characteristics of 48 HCC patients enrolled in determination of the suitable reference genes.

<p>The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging system (BCLC) ranks hepatocellular carcinoma in five stages, ranging from 0 (very early stage) to D (terminal stage).</p>*<p>Tumor differentiation was assigned by Edmondson's grading system.</p>†<p><i>P</i> value for the comparison of cohort B with cohort A. ^‡ Student t tests; Fisher’s exact tests for all the other analyses.