Patients with high intra-tumoral PD-L1 (HR 0.41, 95%CI 0.16–1.04, p = 0.051) and Gal-9 (HR 0.26, 95%CI 0.10–0.68, p = 0.003) had an improved HCC-specific survival (Fig. 2a,b), in agreement with our previous observations14. This evidence concerns the gene LGALS9 and hepatocellular carcinoma.