Introduction. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and the prognosis of unresectable HCC is extremely poor [1, 2].HCC occurs frequently in patients with chronic hepatitis or liver cirrhosis due to either hepatitis B or C viral infection, alcohol use, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or diabetes [].The survival of patients with HCC has gradually ....