To verify that the lack of correlation between the other three candidate genes alternative to HERC5 (i.e. NAA11, DDX60, and HERC6) and outcomes was not due to the small sample size used in the first patient dataset (n = 21), similar analyses were conducted on each gene independently using both larger HCC patient cohorts [35, 36] and no significant associations were observed for any of these three genes with any of the outcomes. Here, HERC6 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.