SOX9 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To validate this, we stratified HCC patients into four subgroups: (i) CD73-high and SOX9-high (n = 62); (ii) CD73-high and SOX9-low (n = 37); (iii) CD73-low and SOX9-high (n = 25); and (iv) CD73-low and SOX9-low (n = 88).