STRN expression was not significantly associated with patient age, sex, tumour size, tumour histologic grade, cirrhosis or hepatitis background, intrahepatic vascular embolism, aminotransferase level, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, C-reactive protein level, serum albumin level, or prothrombin time (all P > 0.05), but was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (both P < 0.05) (Table 1). Here, CRP is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.