KPNA2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Moreover, KPNA2 expression was lower in noncancerous hepatic tissues from most of the HCC patients with or without detectable metastases than in the disease-free normal livers in a GEO dataset GDS3091 (Budhu et al., 2006), implying that the decreased KPNA2 level surrounding the primary HCC lesions would result in its lower concentration in the peripheral blood.