Based on the ROC curve analysis, we subdivided the 135 HCC patients into high- and low-miR-644a-expressing groups (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.837, P < 0.05; Additional file 1: Figure S1A), and did the same for HSF1 (AUC = 0.902, P < 0.05; Additional file 1: Figure S1B). This evidence concerns the gene HSF1 and hepatocellular carcinoma.