ASAP2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Consistent with these in vitro experiment results, GSEA results indicated an enhanced proliferation capacity and accelerated cell cycle signatures in ASAP2-high HCC according to TCGA dataset (Additional file 1: Fig. S4A, B), while apoptosis-related signatures were positively enriched in the ASAP2-low group (Additional file 1: Fig. S4C).