In the available liver tissues from NASH patients and HCC tissues from NASH-HCC patients, RIG-I expression was found to be significantly lower while STAT3 phosphorylation was significantly higher than those in human normal liver tissues (Additional file 2: Fig. S7f–i), which is consistent with the decreased RIG-I and increased STAT3 activation determined in mouse NASH and NASH-induced HCC (Additional file 2: Fig. S5n). This evidence concerns the gene STAT3 and hepatocellular carcinoma.