Interestingly, our study further revealed a high diagnostic accuracy for the detection of HCC even in AFP-negative cases (AUC=0.790; sensitivity 71.0% and specificity 83.0%) when comparing all AFP-negative HCC patients (cut-off < 20 ng/mL AFP) with AFP-negative fibrosis/cirrhosis (F1-F4) patients (Supplementary Figure 6). Here, AFP is linked to fibrosis.