In our present study, we primarily focused on the clinical significance and cell proliferation function of aberrant DDX11 expression, and demonstrated that E2F1-enhanced DDX11 expression could promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression through PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and DDX11 might be a potential therapeutic or prognostic target for HCC treatment. The gene discussed is AKT1; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.