Univariate analyses (Table 2) revealed that positive HBsAg (P =0.008), presence of liver macronodular cirrhosis (P =0.006), elevated AFP (P <0.001), increased AST (P <0.001) and ALT (P =0.018), greater amount of bleeding (P =0.002), larger tumor size (P <0.001), 2–3 lesions (P <0.001), low cancer cell differentiation (P =0.001), presence of tumor thrombus (P <0.001), MVI (P <0.001), absence of tumor encapsulation (P =0.010), and unclear tumor boundary (P <0.001) were identified as significant prognostic factors for RFS. Here, AFP is linked to cancer.