Several novel predictive biomarkers for HCC, such as methylation status of HOXA1, TSPLY5, and PFKP from cell-free DNA (18, 19), and Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations (C228T and C250T) (20), are frequently detected in HCC and have a good predictive value for hepatic oncogenesis. The gene discussed is HOXA1; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.