In the early stages of HCC, high expression of EpCAM (OS P = 0.015, PFS P = 0.023), CD133 (OS P = 0.028), CD13 (OS P = 0.0044, PFS P = 0.0065), CD34 (OS P = 0.017, PFS P = 0.0074), and CK19 (OS P = 0.0067, PFS P = 0.014) had positive correlation with good prognosis, respectively, while CD44 (OS P = 0.0087), SOX12 (OS P = 0.033), and CD24 (PFS P = 7.9E-05) had negative correlation (Supplementary Figure 4). Here, CD24 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.