It should also be noted that although our survival analyses in TCGA discovered the significance of the Prol cell-type in OS and PFI, even after adjusting for tumor stage, other clinically relevant factors in HCC outcomes, including AFP levels, extent of chronic liver disease, presence of lymph vascular invasion on histopathology, and tumor size could not be explored in our models because up to 35% of the 361 individuals had missing data for these parameters. Here, AFP is linked to neoplasm.