In terms of early detection and diagnosis of HCC, MDK at cutoff value 0.387 ng/mL showed a superior diagnostic performance to differentiate early stage HCC from patients with liver cirrhosis when compared to AFP at different cutoff values 20, 88.5, and 200 ng/mL (BCLC 0/A; sensitivity, 90% versus 40, 20, and 0%, resp). The gene discussed is AFP; the disease is cirrhosis of liver.