Considering that higher CCDC6 expression levels are associated with a poor prognosis of patients with HCC in our study, we speculate that when CCDC6 is fused with other proto-oncogenes, the expression of a residual wild-type allele and the expression of fused proto-oncogenes may both contribute to tumor development 29. The gene discussed is CCDC6; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.