Notably, the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis illustrated the clinical significance of HIF-1A and its downstream genes in HCC patients, as the group with elevated expression of HIF-1A, HK2, ENO2, SLC2A1, PKM, and PFKP, and lower expression of GCK and SLC2A2 was associated with poor prognosis and low survival rate when compared to the counterpart group of low expression (Fig. 5). This evidence concerns the gene PKM and hepatocellular carcinoma.