Table 1. The main characteristics of the included studies.

Study	Country	Median age	Number of patients	Tumor type	Disease stage	Primary treatment	Cut off value (U/l)	Follow up (month)	Survival outcomes	Variables adjusted in multivariate analysis	NOS
Carr et al. (2013) [8]	Italy	NR	344	HCC	Unresectable	TACE	150	NR	OS*	Sex, age, alcohol, smoking	6
Chen et al. (2014) [9]	China	55	154	HCC	Unresectable	TACE	85	NR	OS*	ALT, ALB, gross tumor volume, AFP	6
Dong et al. (2017) [10]	China	NR	654	HCC	Early stages (BCLC)	Liver resection	50	NR	OS*, DFS*	Sex, ABS, and liver cirrhosis	8
Dvorchik et al. (2007) [11]	U.S.A.	NR	750	HCC	Unresectable	TACE	100	NR	OS*	AFP, ascites, liver cirrhosis	8
Fan et al. (2017) [12]	China	52	161	HCC	Small HCC	Liver resection followed by TCEA	60	36.6	OS	Liver cirrhosis, and recurrence	7
Fu et al. (2016) [13]	China	51	308	HCC	TNM I-IV	Liver resection	88	29	OS*, DFS*	Child-Pugh stage, tumor number, tumor size, and AFP	7
Fu et al. (2016) [14]	China	49.5	130	HCC	Milan criteria (within and beyond)	Liver transplantation	128	40.3	OS*, DFS*	Tumor size, AFP	6
Gan et al. (2018) [44]	China	NR	326	HCC	BCLC A-C	Liver resection	45	48	RFS*	Liver cirrhosis, GGT, tumor size, and microvascular invasion	8
Guiu et al. (2012) [15]	France	68.2	88	HCC	NR	TACE	165	11.66	OS	Age, WHO PS, tumor burden, AFP, tumor number, and tumor size	6
He et al. (2013) [16]	China	NR	127	HCC	BCLC A-C	Liver resection	50	NR	OS, RFS	Tumor number, tumor size, tumor differentiation and vascular invasion	6
Hu et al. (2017) [17]	China	60	422	ICC	NR	Liver resection	50	NR	OS*, RFS*	Tumor number, tumor size, CA19-9, CEA	7
Ju et al. (2009) [18]	China	NR	219	HCC	BCLC A-C	Liver resection	60	26.76	OS*	Hepatitis B antigen, tumor differentiation, BCLC stage, GGT/ALT ratio	8
Li et al. (2014) [19]	China	55	283	ICC	TNM I–IV	Liver resection	50	17	OS*, RFS	Tumor number, LNM, vascular invasion, adjuvant TACE	8
Liu et al. (2013) [21]	China	59	81	ICC	NR	Liver resection	64	12.2	OS		6
Liu et al. (2012) [20]	China	50.79	338	HCC	NR	Liver resection	80	51	OS		8
Ma et al. (2014) [22]	China	NR	254	HCC	NR	RFA	75	27	OS*, RFS*	TB, tumor size and albumin ALT	7
Shi et al. (2017) [23]	China	60	271	HCC	TNM I–III	Liver resection	50	26	OS*	Tumor encapsulation, tumor number, tumor size, vascular invasion, TNM stage, ALC, AMC, LMR, ALT, and AST	7
Song et al. (2015) [24]	China	65	384	HCC	TNM I–III	Liver resection	100	57.5	OS*, RFS*	CA 19-9, microvascular invasion, ICG-R15, and intrahepatic metastasis	8
Su et al. (2013) [25]	China	56	333	HCC	TNM I–III	Liver resection	60	45.9	RFS*	ICG-15R, anti-viral therapy, macroscopic venous invasion, and microscopic venous invasion	8
Tian et al. (2017) [26]	China	NR	189	HCC	BCLC A-C	Liver resection	54	30.9	RFS*	High-density lipoprotein	7
Wang et al. (2012) [28]	China	53	441	HCC	BCLC A-C	TACE	75	12	0S*	AFP and tumor size	7
Wang et al. (2016) [27]	China	NR	221	HCC	BCLC A-C	WMA	50	41	OS*, RFS*	AFP, tumor size, tumor number, ALP, Ablation effectiveness and recurrence types	7
Wu et al. (2016) [29]	China	NR	469	HCC	BCLC A-C	Liver resection	81.5	42	OS*, RFS*	Tumor size, tumor number, vascular invasion, ALB, AST, ALT, ALP, LDH and AFP	8
Xu et al. (2014) [30]	China	53.5	172	HCC	NR	Liver resection	117	34.92	OS*	HBsAg, ALP, and TS	7
Yin et al. (2013) [31]	China	56	411	ICC	TNM I–III	Liver resection, palliative chemotherapy, TACE, supportive care	50	26	OS*, RFS*	Pathological subtype, TNM stage, tumor differentiation, and vascular invasion	6
Zhang et al. (2014) [33]	China	56.8	138	HCC	NR	TACE	50	12	OS*	PVTT, tumor size, tumor number and diabetes mellitus, NLR	6
Zhang et al. (2016) [35]	China	53	601	HCC	TNM I–IV	Liver resection	50	NR	DFS*	Gender, smoking, AFP, cirrhosis, tumor size, PVTT, microvascular tumor thrombus, TNM stage	8
Zhang et al. (2017) [32]	China	58.83	173	ICC	Unresectable	Chemotherapy	113	NR	OS*	Alb, ALP, TB, DB, chemotherapy	7
Zhang et al. (2011) [34]	China	54	277	HCC	BCLC B	TACE	50	18.7	OS*	Ascites, albumin, TS, AFP	7
Zhang et al. (2015) [36]	China	51	38	HCC	TNM I–III	Liver resection followed by adjuvant sorafenib therapy	40	28.6	OS*, RFS*	PVTT, tumor number, liver cirrhosis, Increased NLR after Sorafenib, and increased GGT after sorafenib	6
Zhong et al. (2018) [37]	China	NR	175	HCC	BCLC A–C	Liver resection	60	NR	OS, DFS*	AFP, CA-199, tumor size, tumor encapsulation, HBsAg, PVTT	7
Zhou et al. (2012) [38]	China	53	114	HCC	TNM I–III	Liver resection	50	NR	OS	Tumor size, PVTT, and liver cirrhosis	6
Zhou et al. (2018) [43]	China	NR	182	HCC	TNM I–IV	Liver resection	54	NR	OS*, RFS*	AFP and tumor size	7

Abbreviations: ABS, albumin-bilirubin score; AFP, α–fetoprotein; ALB, albumin; ALC, absolute lymphocyte count; ALP, alkaline phosphatase; AMC, absolute monocyte count; BCLC, Barcelona clinic liver cancer stage; CA19-9, carbohydrate antigen 19-9; CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; DB, direct bilirubin; ICG-R15, indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min; LMR, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio; LNM, lymph node metastasis; NLR, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; NR, not reported; PVTT, portal vein tumor thrombus; RFA, radiofrequency ablation; TACE, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization; TB, total bilirubin; TNM stage, tumor node metastasis stage; WHO PS, World Health Organization Performance Status; WMA, microwave ablation.

*, multivariate analysis.