PCNA and hepatocellular carcinoma: For HCCN vs. HCV+HCC (tumor stage), the following genes were selected: PCNA-AS1, IFI30, DBA2, ROBO1, and SNORD82. The expression of these eight genes was validated by qRT-PCR using an independent test set of 24 liver and tumor tissue samples (12 CA and 12 AA).