Both groups achieved a good balance in baseline characteristics, including sex, age, Child‒Pugh grade, etiology of HCC, BCLC stage, AFP level, prothrombin time (PT), ALBI, albumin (ALB), total bilirubin (TB), Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score, platelet count (PLT), extrahepatic metastasis, and vascular invasion. Here, AFP is linked to End Stage Liver Disease.