Intriguingly, where significantly altered, more than half of the top upregulated genes in the cell lines (e.g. RFTN1, TFPI2, AXL, BASP1, C-C motif chemokine ligand 2, CCL2) were downregulated in most human HCC microarrays (Fig. 1c), suggesting a discordance in molecular expression in vitro for several upregulated genes in human HCC. Here, AXL is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.