AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: While assessing the correlation between the seven-gene signature and the clinical characteristics of the HCC patients, we found that a high risk score was significantly correlated with the TNM stage (p < 0.001), grade (p = 0.001), and AFP (p = 0.014), but was not significantly associated with the gender, age, BMI, or Child-Pugh score of the patients with HCC (Table 2).