EGFL8 and hepatocellular carcinoma: For these two clinicopathological characteristics are all acknowledged markers for metastasis of HCC [24, 25], it is unsurprisingly that EGFL8 down-regulation was also closely related to high TNM stage, which is also in accord with our previous studies indicating the correlation between EGFL8 down-regulation and high TNM stage of colorectal and gastric cancers.