AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Table 1 shows the correlations between EIF4EBP1 and clinicopathologic features. High EIF4EBP1 expression is significantly associated with serum AFP positive (P = 0.003), and marginally significantly associated with pathological grade (P = 0.085), tumor number (P = 0.084), tumor embolus (P = 0.084) and capsulation (P = 0.073), suggesting that EIF4EBP1 is involved in HCC progression.