Double combination of the biomarkers miR-122@AFP, AFP@TERT and TERT@miR-122 gained better diagnostic performance in differentiating HCC from LC (AUC = 0.83, 0.82, and 0.79, respectively), HCC from CHB (AUC = 0.96, 0.89 and 0.89, respectively) and HCC from non-HCC (AUC = 0.90, 0.87 and 0.86, respectively) (Fig. 3). Here, AFP is linked to laryngotracheoesophageal cleft.