AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Although previous studies have demonstrated that AFP levels (Matsumoto et al., 2003; Ma et al., 2013; Ladep et al., 2015), tumor size (Yip et al., 2013), and BCLC stage (Fernandez-Ruiz et al., 2009; Guo et al., 2017) were independent predictors for the survival of HCC.