Futhermore, in a multivariate Cox model, including tumor size, tumor stage, tumor grading, presence of cirrhosis, gender, age, and SOX9 staining, we found that SOX9 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for both 5-year disease-free survival (hazards ratio [HR] = 2.621, 95% confidence interval[CI] = 1.548-5.829, P = 0.01, Table 2) and 5-year overall survival (HR = 3.825, CI = 1.638-7.612, P = 0.003, Table 2) in HCC. Here, SOX9 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.