In a clinical study on icaritin, the benefiting population was defined as patients with tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels <2.5 pg/mL and interferon-gamma levels ≥7.0 pg/mL, suggesting that icaritin may be more beneficial for patients with HCC with concomitant hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus infections (Sun et al., 2021). Here, TNF is linked to hepatitis C virus infection.