Moreover, IHC characterization revealed that the SH3PXD2B protein was expressed in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes and the levels of SH3PXD2B expression in 89 HCC specimens were significantly higher than that in the paired non-tumor liver samples (P < 0.0001, Fig. 1d and Additional file 1: Fig. S1). Here, SH3PXD2B is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.