More so, the characterization of poorly differentiated aggressive HCC cells by aberration in PDK1 expression is of clinical relevance, since it is broadly understood that poorly differentiated cancerous cells exhibit greater degree of resistance to therapy, and are strongly associated with increased metastasis and poor prognosis [25], thus, highlighting a critical role for PDK1 as a putative molecular target in HCC. Here, PDK1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.