SOX21 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Similarly, Wei et al. [20] found SOX21-AS1 expression was increased in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and cell lines respectively compared with adjacent normal liver tissues and normal liver epithelial cell line, and SOX21-AS1 overexpression was associated with large tumor size, high Edmonson grade, vascular invasion and cirrhosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.