Although treatment of HCC has improved greatly in recent decades, radical resection on the basis of early diagnosis is still the main chance to achieve long‐term cancer‐free survival.22 At present, early diagnosis of HCC mainly relies on US, AFP, or combination of both.22 Due to their limitations, lots of researches have focused on exploring more effective biomarkers to improve the early diagnosis of HCC.4 Here, AFP is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.