Tomizawa et al. examined the expression level of the C/EBPα and C/EBPβ genes between tumor and non-tumorous tissues of the same hepatocellular carcinoma patients, with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions showing that the expression of both the C/EBPα and C C/EBPβ genes was downregulated in the majority of the tumor specimens compared to the corresponding non-tumorous tissues. The gene discussed is CEBPA; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.