Fifteen out of 40 HCC patients (37%) had low AFP (<20 ng); from those 15 patients, only 1 patient had MDK <0.387 ng/mL; this shows that MDK had an outstanding performance for distinguishing hepatocellular carcinomas from liver cirrhosis even in patients with AFP <20 with sensitivity reaching 93.3%. The gene discussed is AFP; the disease is cirrhosis of liver.