Aberrant expression of HOXC6 may result in the malignant transformation of normal cells (DeInnocentes et al., 2015; Feng et al., 2009; Moon et al., 2012; Wright et al., 1989; Zhang et al., 2013), and elevated HOXC6 expression has been observed in several types of cancers, including prostate, gastrointestinal, colorectal, and hepatocellular cancers (Chen et al., 2016a; Ji et al., 2016; Sui et al., 2016; Vinarskaja et al., 2011). Here, HOXC6 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.