AFP and cancer: Previous studies showed that low WWOX expression may aid in the promotion of angiogenesis in various cancers, and also showed that the methylation of WWOX gene promoter CpG island was associated with suppression of WWOX expression.15, 29, 30 Such findings were confirmed in our study, and low WWOX expression patterns were associated with aggressive tumor phenotypes, including high level of AFP, incomplete tumor encapsulation, poor differentiation, present microvascular invasion, and advanced BCLC stages.