Previous studies showed that in early-stage HCC, patients with HBV infection had better prognosis than those with HCV due to better liver reserve and less hepatic fibrosis.49 Furthermore, our previous study demonstrated that HCV-related HCC correlated with overexpression of twist, a major regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition that is critical for the induction of invasiveness and metastasis for human cancers.50 This evidence concerns the gene TWIST1 and hepatocellular carcinoma.