Furthermore, among the 25 overlapping genes, three genes (DCAF7, EPS15, and TSC1) were overexpressed both in liver cancer tissue compared with normal tissue and in primary HCC tissues of patients with metastasis compared with primary HCC tissues of patients without metastasis, as determined using the online analysis tool HCMDB, indicating that these genes might be involved in the development of HCC (Additional file 4: Fig. S4a). Here, DCAF7 is linked to liver cancer.