In the early pathogenesis of DEN induced HCC, the mRNA expression of Epcam and Afp was continuously upregulated in all DEN treated mice compared to saline control (Figure 2A, B(Fig. 2)), strengthening the evidence for these characteristics as good markers of carcinogenesis (Chan et al., 2014[5]; Gomaa et al., 2015[13]). Here, AFP is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.