TCIRG1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Previous studies revealed that TCIRG1 was widely up-regulated in numerous tumors, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, esophageal adenocarcinoma and breast cancer, which might be associated with autophagic sequestration and degradation (Blair and Athanasou, 2004; Hinton et al., 2009; Botelho et al., 2010).