Transcriptome profiling and gene ontology biological analysis confirmed that Mφ-PD-L1+ HCC tumor samples displayed an immune-activated microenvironment and upregulated genes that were mainly involved in the IFNγ-mediated signaling pathway (Additional file 1: Figure S6a and b, Additional file 4: Table S8). This evidence concerns the gene IFNG and hepatocellular carcinoma.