MYC and hepatocellular carcinoma: Next, we performed qRT-PCR to detect the expression of c-Myc mRNA in above 20 paired HCC and the adjacent nontumor tissues, and showed that the relative expression level of c-Myc mRNA in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the matched adjacent nontumor tissues (Figure 8a), and a significant inverse correlation between the expression level of miR-451 and that of c-Myc mRNA was observed in the 20 paired HCC tissues (r = −0.776; P<0.001; Figure 8b).