57445 HCC were registered

31743 HCC with complete data

10114 underwent surgical resection

9577 underwent local ablation therapies

9283 underwent TACE

1150 underwent chemotherapy

827 received other treatments such as radiation therapy

476 underwent continuous arterial infusion of 5-FU and CDDP*

674 underwent other chemotherapy

25702 were excluded due to insufficient data

1466 received no active therapy*

Supplementary Figure 1. Flow of participants into the study. Survival of two groups with asterisk were

compared. HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; TACE, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization; 5-FU, 5-

fluorouracil; CDDP, cisplatin.

Subgroup HR 95% CI

HBsAg-positive 0.45 0.33–0.62

HBsAg-negative 0.48 0.40–0.57

More than 3 tumors 0.41 0.33–0.49

Fewer than 3 tumors 0.55 0.43–0.69

Tumor size >3cm 0.46 0.39–0.54

Tumor size ≤3cm 0.59 0.40–0.86

Distant metastasis 0.45 0.38–0.54

No distant metastasis 0.51 0.37–0.70

VP 0/1/2 0.55 0.44–0.67

VP 3/4 0.40 0.32–0.49

Alpha-fetoprotein >400 ng/mL 0.44 0.36–0.54

Alpha-fetoprotein ≤400 ng/mL 0.51 0.41–0.64

0 0.5 1.0

Supplementary Figure 2. Forest plot for the risk of hepatic arterial infusion of 5-fluorouracil

and cisplatin (HAIC). Subgroup analysis showed a benefit of HAIC compared with no active therapy

regardless of the values of prognostic factors. HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval.

Sur

viva

l Rat

e

Months after diagnosisPatients at risk

HAIC

No therapy

185 81 39 18 11 6 3

185 38 17 10 6 4 2

HAIC

No therapy

Supplemantary Figure 3. Survival of propensity score-matched patients with Child-Pugh A/B

disease and more than three tumors. Patients who underwent hepatic arterial infusion of 5-

fluorouracil and cisplatin (HAIC) or no active therapy (no therapy) were compared. Median survival

times were 13.9 months (HAIC) and 3.7 months (no therapy) (P<.0001).

Months after diagnosis

Sur

viva

l Rat

e

Patients at risk

HAIC

No therapy

189 57 19 8 4 1

189 29 10 7 4 3 3

HAIC

No therapy

-

Supplementary Figure 4. Survival of propensity score-matched patients with Child-Pugh A/B

disease and portal vein tumor thrombus. Patients who underwent hepatic arterial infusion of 5-

fluorouracil and cisplatin (HAIC) or no active therapy (no therapy) were compared. Median survival

times were 7.9 months (HAIC) and 3.1 months (no therapy) (P<.0001).