ACTA1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In HCC patients with cirrhosis (stage 4; n = 72), there were significantly lower α-SMA values than in patients without cirrhosis (stages 1 to 3; n = 233; 18.30% vs. 28.95%; p = 0.029); MVD was equally distributed between the two subgroups (22.88% vs. 24.34%; p = 0.763).