VIM and hepatocellular carcinoma: Furthermore, Liu, YK et al. evaluated the expression of several EMT markers, including CK8/18/19, EpCAM, vimentin and Twist, in the CTCs of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma patients and classified CTCs into epithelial, biophenptypic and mesenchymal phenotypes based on the expression of EMT markers, which is the approach used by most studies to classify CTCs.