XIST and hepatocellular carcinoma: Previous studies had shown that XIST was expressed mainly in female cells and induced the silencing of X chromosome.31 It was reported that the incidence rate of HCC in males was two to three times higher than that in females.32 It has been known that the gender disparity of HCC occurrence was related with many factors including sex hormones and cytokines.33 However, the role of gender-specific genes in HCC tumorigenesis has been rarely reported.