PLAG1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Kaplan–Meier analysis of overall survival rates concerning 374 patients from the TCGA-LIHC cohort highlighted an inverse relationship between PLAG1 levels and survival rates, indicating its contribution to HCC progression (Fig. 1B). A more localized study using qRT-PCR demonstrated an elevation in PLAG1 mRNA levels in 87 tumor tissues compared to normal tissues, consistent with data from the TCGA-LIHC RNA sequencing and cDNA-microarray analysis (Fig. 1C-E).