AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: However, additional factors not included in the BCLC system, such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, sex, ascites, total bilirubin, blood urea, prothrombin time-international normalized ratio (PT-INR), and Model For End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score, have also been demonstrated to have a prognostic value for predicting survival in HCC [3, 15–18].