Patients in the cabozantinib arm of the CELESTIAL study might have had more aggressive HCC and a poorer prognosis at baseline than those in the prior sorafenib cohort of this study, as reflected by a higher rate of macrovascular invasion (27% vs 0%), an ECOG performance status > 0 (48% vs 0%) and AFP level ≥ 400 ng/mL (41% vs 20%); while the number of patients aged ≥ 65 years (49% vs 90%) favored the cabozantinib arm of the CELESTIAL study compared with our study [13]. Here, AFP is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.