ALB and hepatocellular carcinoma: In the univariate analysis, male sex, age, baseline platelet, AST, ALT, albumin, prothrombin time (PT), cholesterol, HBV DNA level, HBeAg, alcohol use, diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN), presence of liver cirrhosis, and ALT normalization at 1 year of treatment were associated with HCC development (Table 5).