Strengthening the case that elevated levels of programmed death ligand 1 predict poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients Jian-Hong Zhong,1,* Cheng-Piao Luo,2,* Chun-Yan Zhang,2 Le-Qun Li1 1Hepatobiliary Surgery Department, 2Experimental Department, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Immunotherapy targeting programmed death receptor 1 and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) has shown impressive antitumor efficacy in several solid cancers, including advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Since response rates of various cancers to such immunotherapy appear to correlate with PD-L1 expression levels, several studies have examined whether PD-L1 expression correlates with HCC pathology and patient prognosis. In this paper, we analyzed the strength and limitations of a recent meta-analysis of associations of PD-L1 with HCC characteristics and patient prognosis. Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, programmed death ligand 1, hepatic resection, prognoses