Although we were unable to carried out analysis with regard to certain potential relevant factors (such as patients’ body mass index) due to the lack of data reported in many of the included studies, the key finding of high GPC3 expression in the HCC tissue representing an indicator of poor prognosis in patients with HCC was consistently present in the pooled analysis of all studies as well as throughout all subgroup analysis. Here, GPC3 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.