In contrast to the nuclear localization of Nur77 in L02 cells, Nur77 was distributed mainly in the cytoplasm in different liver cancer cell lines (Supplementary Fig. 2d), which may be associated with Nur77 loss of most transcriptional activity in HCC cells, as transfection of Nur77 did not induce the mRNA and protein levels of its downstream target E2F1 (ref. 32) in HepG2, Huh7 and SMMC-7721 cells (Supplementary Fig. 2e). Here, E2F1 is linked to liver cancer.