Considering some observations like matriptase expression (both protein and mRNA) is significantly higher in carcinoma cells compared with normal human prostate epithelial cells [39], tissue expression of matriptase is increased in the liver of HCC [40], and matriptase-2 is highly expressed in liver cancer cell line [41], it can be postulated that HCC patients may show high hepatic matriptase-2 expression. Here, ST14 is linked to liver cancer.