These findings led us to hypothesize that for many genes (at least 422 MDA-unique genes and 264 HCC-unique genes) possessing remarkably similar SMAD3 binding patterns in BTICs (yellow boxes, Figures 2E and 2F), other regulatory determinants might govern the context-specific transcriptional outputs of TGF-β. Here, TGFB1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.