Portal vein tumour thrombus (PVTT) is an important poor prognostic factor for HCC, and a strong statistical correlation exists between intrahepatic metastasis and PVTT.12 Interestingly, expression of chemerin was negative/low in 16 of 28 (57%) PVTT tissues, which was significantly downregulated compared to the corresponding primary HCC tissues (p = 0.014) (Fig. 1b, c), indicating a potential association between low chemerin level and PVTT development. Here, RARRES2 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.