Patients’ characteristics
The clinical characteristics of the 70 patients with HCC are summarised in Table 1. Accordingly, the mean age was 52.5 ± 12.2, and 66 (94.3%) patients were male. Regarding relative tumour features, 69 patients (98.5%) had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1; 42 (60.0%) had a portal vein tumour thrombus (PVTT); 25 (35.7%) had extrahepatic metastasis; 46 (65.7%) had more than 3 tumour lesions; 33 (47.1%) had the largest tumour diameter of over 7 cm; and 30 (47.1%) had an AFP level > 400 ng/mL. All patients received anti-PD-1 in combination with an antiangiogenic therapy, and the antiangiogenic regimens included lenvatinib (58.6%), sorafenib (11.4%), apatinib (7.2%), regorafenib (11.4%), and bevacizumab (11.4%). At baseline, 48 patients (68.6%) had a low HBV DNA level (baseline viral load <2,000 IU/mL), while 22 patients (31.4%) had a high HBV DNA level (baseline viral load ≥2,000 IU/mL). In addition, the median HBsAg level was 403.9 (0.1, 7026.0) and 87.1% of patients were HBeAg-negative.