AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: By adjustments of histological grade, tumor size, AFP, p-stage, and vessel invasion, multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses revealed that overall survival (OS) in HCC patients was independently correlated with PRELP expression [hazard ratio (HR), 0.43; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.19-0.99; p=0.048], along with pstages [HR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.24-7.02; p=0.015] (Table 3).