The results revealed that HCC patients with high expression of both POSTN and AP-2α had a median survival time (MS) of 21.1 months after tumour resection, which was the worst survival time observed in all the groups and was significantly shorter than the survival time of patients with low expression of both AP-2α and POSTN (MS 43.2 months) (P = 0.001) (Fig. 7G). This evidence concerns the gene POSTN and hepatocellular carcinoma.