When applied to peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, GenPath-PPH not only identifies well-known cancer-associated pathways (e.g., JAK-STAT signaling, p53 signaling and the pentose phosphate pathway) in accordance with other techniques, but also reveals additional pathways (e.g., NF- κ B signaling, sphingolipid signaling and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis) that are either missed by other techniques, despite their known relevance to HCC, or represent novel candidate pathways for experimental evaluation. This evidence concerns the gene SOAT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma.