RUNX2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: We found that RUNX2 protein was significantly higher in HCC tissues than in LC and NL tissues and that RUNX2 mRNA was overexpressed in 8 out of the 12 (66.6%) HCC patient tissues, with a co-expression of RUNX2 mRNA and NUPR1 mRNA observed in 50% of RUNX2-positive HCC samples.