The clinical data of all the patients are shown in Table 2, and the results demonstrated that the STAG3 protein levels were significantly correlated with the AFP level (≤ 20/ > 20 ng/ml; P = 0.014), cirrhosis (negative/positive; P = 0.023), the tumor size (≤ 5/ > 5 cm; P = 0.003) and the pathological stage (I-II/III-IV; P = 0.026). Here, STAG3 is linked to neoplasm.