The groups did not differ significantly between clinical characteristics including the size of the target lesions, HCC etiology, Barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) stage, Child–Pugh score, model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, or selected laboratory values such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), albumin, or bilirubin (Table 1). Here, ALB is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.