HGF and hepatocellular carcinoma: In HCC, in addition to miRNA deregulation, this pathway is instead activated by numerous growth factors, such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), present in the tumor microenvironment, or by the amplification of genes coding for fibroblast growth factor (FGF; in particular FGF19, 5%–14% of HCC cases).74