CD8A and hepatocellular carcinoma: The combination of PD-L1, Gal-9 and CD8+TIL as a single biomarker (Fig. 4) predicted HCC-specific survival (p = 0.020, HR 0.43, 95%CI 0.24–0.77) and was validated as an independent predictor of HCC-specific survival in multivariate analysis in the AMC cohort (p = 0.005).