The results indicated that the expression level of DPT in the HCC tissues was closely associated with vascular invasion (P = 0.005), tumor thrombosis (P = 0.003), tumor encapsulation (P = 0.013), tumor differentiation (P = 0.017), serum AFP (P = 0.016) and TNM stage (P = 0.047) (Table 1). The gene discussed is AFP; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.