CXCR4 and liver cancer: Genes upregulated in pre-hot patients (CXCR4, BCL2, FYN) (Figure 4A) were associated with liver cancer progression, aligning with previous studies (Lin et al., 2014; Hosseini-Khah et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2022), while viral load showed no correlation (data not shown).