Fu Z, Jiao Y, Li YQ, et al. - In view of a recent work reporting abnormal expression of pescadillo (PES1: a nuclear protein that is involved in embryonic development, ribosome synthesis, DNA replication, and cell cycle progression) in several tumors, including neuroblastoma, colon cancer, gastric cancer, and breast cancer, researchers sought to examine the expression patterns and specific roles of PES1 in liver cancer on the basis of bio-informatic analysis, cell experiments and animal models. PES1 expression was represented by boxplots. The chi-squared test and Fisher’s exact tests were used to determine the correlation between PES1 expression and clinical features. Different levels of PES1 expression were compared regarding overall survival using Kaplan–Meier curves; potential variables associated with overall survival were selected via Cox analysis. The proliferation rate was assessed using the MTT assay, the migratory ability was assessed via the scratch assay, and the invasion capacity of tumor cells was assessed in vitro using the Transwell assay. The tumorigenic roles of PES1 in vivo was confirmed using animal models. The molecular mechanisms that PES1 participated in were determined via GSEA. Outcomes revealed upregulation of PES1 in liver cancer and that it correlates with poor prognosis, by promoting tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. PES1 is suggested to be a novel diagnostic and prognostic bio-marker and a promising therapeutic target in liver cancer.