Cai X, Deng J, Zhou J, et al. - In hepatocellular cancer (HCC), cyclin-dependent kinase 19 (CDK19) may serve as a prognostic marker but further exploration of its therapeutic potential is required.

• The potential roles of CDK19 in HCC were investigated by using public databases and wet-bench hepatic cell line experiments.

• HCC tissues, vs normal liver tissues, exhibited marked CDK19 upregulation, and a high diagnostic value of CDK19 mRNA expression was evident in HCC patients.

• In cases with stage 2–3, stage 3–4, and grade 2 disease, CDK19 upregulation holds significant prognostic value for overall survival.

• Eight of the 10 genes with correlation to CDK19 were found to have excellent prognostic value in HCC.

• Direct involvement of these hub genes in cell division and regulation of the G2/M cell cycle transition was seen.

• A high probability of the involvement of CDK19 in several cellular functions, such as proliferation, migration, and invasion is suggested by protein–protein interaction and pathway predictions.