CD44 and cancer: Interestingly, using bioinformatics-based algorithms for functional characterization and druggability studies, we also showed that COL1A1 is a targetable or druggable oncogene that not only has a high degree of gene neighborliness, but is a probable modulator of other collagen types such as COL1A2, COL4A1, and COL4A5, survival genes ABL1, ABL2, and PPARG, as well as known markers of cancer stemness, namely ALDH1, CD44, CD133/PROM1, KLF4, MYC, OCT4/POU5F1 and SOX2, in patients with HCC (Figure 5).