Moreover, consistent with the results of Cohort 1, we found that the expression of MSI2 was dramatically higher in HCC tumors compared to adjacent non-tumor tissues (Fig. 1h, n = 82, *** P = 0.0005, t test), Representative cases of immunohistochemical staining of MSI2 and CD44v6 were shown in Fig. 1h, Additional file 1: Figure S1B and S1C. The gene discussed is MSI2; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.