SOX9 and cancer: SOX9 positivity was associated with shorter DFS according to a study by Kawai et al. (2016) who reported that SOX9 is a novel HCC/cancer stem cell marker regulating the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and its downstream target, osteopontin; patients with SOX9+ tumors exhibited significantly poorer recurrence-free survival, but no significant difference was observed in OS.