STAT4 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Genome-wide association studies indicated that single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes such as deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1, a tumor suppressor gene implicated in HCC pathogenesis) [95], STAT4 (a key protein for regulation of the inflammation) [96,97], cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen (CTL)-4 [97], transforming growth factor β 1 (TGF-β1) [98], TPTE2 (a phosphatase and tensin homolog) [99], mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2) [100] are associated with HCC in chronic HBV patients.