By testing a series of cutoff values (see Materials and Methods), Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank test indicated that patients with T/N ratios of furin expression ≥ 3.5 (n = 13) in hepatoma tissues had significantly longer DFS compared to those with T/N ratios <3.5 (n = 92) (P = 0.010) (Fig. 1D). This evidence concerns the gene FURIN and hepatocellular carcinoma.