Recently, several clinicopathological studies have identified serum STC2 levels are elevated in patients with HCC, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer, and particularly high serum STC2 levels are associated with poor prognosis20, 50, 51, 52, indicating secreted STC2 could perform its biological functions through an endocrine mechanism at organism levels. The gene discussed is STC2; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.