Wei et al. discovered that MAGE-A9 (a specific cancer testis antigen), whose anomalous expression was correlated with enhanced tumor proliferation and metastases, was increased in EpCAM+ AFP+ HCC characterized by hepatic stem/progenitor cells, indicating that MAGE-A9 might perform a role in regulating stem cell-like feature and act as an underlying therapeutic target79. This evidence concerns the gene MAGEA9 and hepatocellular carcinoma.