MAPK3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Because ERK signaling plays a central role in the carcinogenesis and maintenance of common cancers, the dysregulated expression of ERK1/2 and p-ERK1/2 also affects the expression of its potential downstream targets, which are responsible for a wide range of biological processes such as cell proliferation and differentiation, cell cycle and survival, cell migration and invasion, etc. Thus, our present results indicate that UCA1 may facilitate HCC malignant progression partly through FGFR1/ERK, rather than FGFR1/JNK or FGFR1/p38 MAPK, signaling pathway.