AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Overall, the cohort of patients who were HIV- was selected as a control group (Table 1) and was balanced for key clinicopathologic features of HCC compared with patients who were HIV+, including sex (87% vs. 86% of males across groups, p = 0.88), presence of cirrhosis (100% vs. 94%, p = 0.07), proportion of patients in BCLC stage 0–A/B (92% vs. 84%, p = 0.27), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) ≥400 ng/ml (4% vs. 9%, p = 0.65).