TGFA and hepatocellular carcinoma: We set the cutoff values of 6 serum cytokines that can be used for comparison analysis between cohorts 1 and 2 based on their median values in 143 HCC cases as follows: IL-5 (12 pg/mL), IL-8 (10 pg/mL), CXCL9 (100 pg/mL), PDGF-BB (300 pg/mL), VEGF-A (50 ng/mL), and TGF-α (20 ng/mL).