Based on the median of calculated risk score, a total of 343 TCGA-HCC patients were categorized equally into high- and low-risk groupings and the heatmap showed the expression profile of five key genes between the different subgroups (Fig. 4D), in which FADD, GSDME and SCAF11 were the differentially expressed PANRGs (Figs. 2A and 4D). This evidence concerns the gene GSDME and hepatocellular carcinoma.