In order to investigate the correlation between autophagy and HCC progression, we conducted Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA) using an autophagy‐related gene set (MAP1LC3B, ATG10, ATG12, ATG13, ATG3, ULK1) obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) HCC patient database. Here, ULK1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.