After adjustment for cirrhosis status, gender, HBV/HCV status and TNM staging, HERC5 was a significant predictor of overall survival (p = 0.004; HR = 2.02 CI95 = [1.26, 3.25]) and HCC recurrence (p = 0.004; HR = 1.80 CI95 = [1.20, 2.69]) in one dataset [36] with median time to recurrence in the HERC5 low group = 23 months versus HERC5 high group = 49 months (Fig. 3b; Table 2). Here, HERC5 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.