Briefly, patients were adults (≥ 18 years of age) with histopathologically or cytologically confirmed HCC (or a diagnosis of cirrhosis and HCC with classical imaging characteristics), Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage B or C disease, Child–Pugh class A liver disease, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, and elevated AFP (≥ 400 ng/mL). Here, AFP is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.