Transcriptome

Surgically resected samples were obtained from 52 patients with HBV-related HCC from Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University. Totally, 58 tumor and 52 adjacent liver tissue samples were collected. All sample identities were renamed with codes (such as 78T, 78P and so on) instead of the patient’s private information. Written informed consent was provided by all patients. All patients had an HBV but no HCV infection background and had not undergone prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Clinical information — including gender, age, etiology, status of liver cirrhosis, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, AJCC TNM stage, number of tumors, maximum tumor diameter, status of lymphatic metastasis, status of tumor thrombus, G scores (evaluation of liver inflammation), S scores (evaluation of liver fibrosis) and serum AFP—was collected.The samples for transcriptome profiling were placed in RNAlater (Qiagen) at 4 °C overnight and stored at −80 °C on the second day.