The presence of total CTC did not significantly correlate with any of the clinical characteristics, including age (P = 0.088), sex (P = 0.778), HBsAg (P = 0.863), Child-Pugh score (P = 0.138), liver cirrhosis (P = 0.754), level of AFP (P = 0.757), number of tumors (P = 0.225), tumor size (P = 0.192), vascular invasion (P = 0.614) or BCLC stage (P = 0.189). This evidence concerns the gene AFP and cirrhosis of liver.