APLN and hepatocellular carcinoma: In fact, given the significant role deriving from our previous studies [19–22] for each biomarker analyzed (APLN, OPN, NOTCH-1, CASP-3, Bcl-2, BAX, PTX3, and NPTX2), we believed important to evaluate which of these key genes could have a predominant role in the HCC pathology, exploiting statistical analysis and in-silico tools to build a multi-biomarker model.