AFP and neoplasm: HCC patients with lower GHR hepatic expression exhibited significantly higher frequency of patients with AFP> 100 ng/ml (76.5% vs. 23.5%; p = 0.048); tumor size >5cm (82% vs. 18%; p = 0.02); vascular invasion (85.5% vs. 14.5%; p = 0.002), and advanced TNM stage (80.6% vs. 19.4%; p = 0.01).