Interestingly, correlation between TGFB1 and P-SMAD2 was decreased with liver disease progression (inflammation, R=0.9615, P=0.0005; cirrhosis, R=0.8862, P<0.0001; HCC R=-0.2113, P=0.2624) while correlation between TGFB1 and P-ERK showed the opposite trend (inflammation, R=0.2043, P=0.6603; cirrhosis R=0.4047, P=0.1200; HCC R=-0.5097, P=0.0004) (Figure 7C and 7D). This evidence concerns the gene SMAD2 and hepatocellular carcinoma.