Patient demographic and clinical characteristics
Supporting Information Table S1 shows some demographic and clinical characteristics in the patients studied. The median age was 73 ± 6 years (range 57-89 years). Men were more prevalent with respect to women (24 males and 10 females). Hepatitis virus C (HCV) infection was present in 19 cases (56%), HBV infection in 6 (18%), and alcoholic- and cryptogenetic/metabolic-related HCC was present in 3 (9%) and 6 (18%) cases, respectively. According to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) classification, 3 patients were BCLC stage A (9%), 21 patients were BCLC stage B (62%) and 10 patients were BCLC stage C (29%). As for the Child-Pugh score, 26 patients (76%) were class A, 6 (18%) were class B, and 2 (6%) were class C. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was ≥ 400 ng/dL in 4 cases (12%) and < 400 ng/dL in 30 cases (88%). Twenty-two patients (65%) received locoregional treatments. Six patients (18%) had portal invasion. Finally, 19 (56%) patients maintained their starting dose of sorafenib, whereas 15 (44%) underwent dose reduction.