ECE1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Of the eight genes tested, the methylation of five genes, GRASP (mGRASP), CCND2 (mCCND2), HOXA9 (mHOXA9), BMP4 (mBMP4) and ECE1 (mECE1), were found to be significantly different (p < 0.05) between HCC and non-HCC patients.