Although no significant relationship was found between the expression level of SMYD3 and ANKHD1 in the 243 HCC tissues (Fig. 6a; Additional file 3: Figure S6A-S6C; Additional file 1: Table S5), Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with positive coexpression of SMYD3 and ANKHD1 (SMYD3+ANKHD1+) had the shortest overall and recurrence-free survival (Fig. 6b). The gene discussed is SMYD3; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.