Sex and preoperative alpha-fetoprotein correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with MFN2 mRNA expression, whereas age, HBsAg, HBV-DNA replication, liver cirrhosis, tumor number, tumor size, vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, intrahepatic metastasis, liver capsular invasion, differentiation, and TNM stage did not. The gene discussed is AFP; the disease is metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.