STC2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: We identified five OESGs as a prognostic signature consisting of IL18RAP, ECT2, PPARGC1A, STC2 and NQO1 for HCC in the training cohort TCGA-LIHC, by LASSO Cox and stepwise Cox regression analyses (Fig. 2A-F), and the OESGs prognostic signature was verified in external cohort GSE14520 (Fig. 2G-I).