In the initial work identifying HULC as a ncRNA upregulated in HCC, a pilot study comprised of four HCC patients, ten patients with hepatic cirrhosis, and nine healthy individuals found that peripheral blood levels of HULC RNA were substantially higher in patients with HCC compared to individuals with no evidence of liver disease, and that for two of the HCC patients, blood levels of HULC mirrored those in surgically resected tumors [31]. This evidence concerns the gene HULC and hepatocellular carcinoma.