Probing for probable role of SAE1 in disease progression, we demonstrated that SAE1 expression increased with HCC stage, as evidenced by higher expression in advanced stages (stages III/IV) and stage II than in stage I or non-tumor (stages II-IV > stage I >> non-tumor) (p < 0.0001), indicating the increased expression of SAE1 is tumorigenic and disease progression-associated (Figure 2C). Here, SAE1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.