To explore whether the cHCC cell line has similar expression profiles of genes involved in neoplastic growth and apoptosis as human HCC, the mRNA levels of the following genes were measured by means of quantitative RT-PCR: c-MET, PTEN, p27kip, Bcl-2, beta-catenin, SOCS3, ODC, TGF-alpha and collagen-1. The gene discussed is TGFA; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.