Footnotes

• FC and MM contributed equally.

• Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Professor Esteban Cvitkovic for his precious scientific advice, Dr Maude Le Gall for her help in the design of in vivo experiments and Réseau CRB foie, Tumorothèque Pathology Department, Hôpital Beaujon.

• Contributors FC, MM and SL: selection of patient and WB analysis. MA: slides scanning and morphometry. PER, OS, ER and PB: patient recruitment and manuscript revision. VP: study design and writing.

• Funding We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the ‘Fondation Nelia et Amadeo Barletta’. François Cauchy also received a research grant from the ‘Association Benoit Malassagne’.

• Competing interests None declared.

• Patient consent Obtained.

• Ethics approval Institutional approval (local ethic committee).

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.