Furthermore, the 17 hub genes were subjected to disease-free survival (DFS) analysis using KM plotter, and the up-regulated 15 hub genes (AURKA, CCNA2, CDC20, CENPF, FOXM1, HMMR, KIF20A, MELK, OIP5, PRC1, PTTG1, TOP2A, TPX2, TRIP13 and UBE2C) were correlated with shorter DFS of HCC patients (Figure 5). Here, PTTG1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.