AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Sex, age, Child-Pugh classification, AFP, and tumor numbers were not significant predictors of initial treatment response to TACE in intermediate-stage HCC in the training cohort (P = 0.601, 0.885, 0.691, 0.170 and 0.96, respectively) and validation cohort (P = 0.696, 0.667, 0.529, 0.552 and 0.511, respectively) (Figures 2B, C).