The GSE84005 dataset was regarded as another externally validated HCC cohort for detecting the expression of five survival-related STING pathway markers, it was noticed that the expression of NLRC3 and TBK1 was elevated in the tumor group, showing a consistent expression trend with the observation in HCC cohorts from TCGA, ICGC, and GSE14520 datasets (Additional file 8: Figure S5). Here, TBK1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.