CDH1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Several studies have suggested that a downregulation of E-cadherin-mediated intercellular adhesion increased tumor differentiation, invasion, and metastasis and led to a poor prognosis in human cancers, including HCC.26,27 At present, our microarray studies also showed that the downregulation of E-cadherin in tumor tissues was associated with hepatic vascular invasion, moderate to poor differentiation, and the recurrence of patients with HCC (data not shown).