PTEN and neoplasm: To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the GATA3-AS1-mediated increase in HCC cell proliferation and metastasis, the expression levels of tumor-suppressive genes that play inhibitory roles in HCC progression were evaluated by RT-qPCR, including phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) [21], cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A) [22], and tumor protein p53 (TP53) [23].