AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: A highly sensitive AFP-L3% (rate of AFP-L3 in total AFP) ME-based assay developed by Kobayashi et al. was demonstrated to be highly sensitive for this marker in HCC patients; by employing this method, pre- and postoperative AFP-L3% were identified as two factors useful to estimate the chance of HCC recurrence after the therapy, the percentage of which increases as the years after treatment increases (ranging from 21.5% at year 1 up to 65.6% at year 5) [120].