A representative case of immunohistochemical staining of all three markers was shown in Supplementary Figure S3A. A higher level of HOXC10 and PDPK1, VASP or IL-1R1expression was observed in metastatic HCC tissues than in primary HCC samples and adjacent nontumor tissues (Supplementary Figure S3A-B). Here, VASP is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.