As a risk factor, increased serum GDF15 has been associated with several human diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and prostate,[17, 25, 32, 33] breast and colon cancer.[18, 24] To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating an association between serum GDF15 levels and severe liver diseases, including HCC and LC. This evidence concerns the gene GDF15 and hepatocellular carcinoma.