After searching the TCGA database, although we did not found significant difference of HIF-1α mRNA expression in between 374 HCC and 50 normal liver tissues (Fold-change = 1.48, P = 0.16, Supplementary Fig 1A), HCC patients with higher HIF-1α mRNA expression in tumor tissues suffered from the worse prognosis than those with lower HIF-1α in tumor tissues compared to adjacent liver tissues (HR = 1.73, P = 0.003, Supplementary Fig 1B). The gene discussed is HIF1A; the disease is neoplasm.