Since Chan et al15 firstly reported the ratio of ALB to ALP combined with ALB and ALP levels can be used as an indicator for predicting the prognosis for patients with liver cancer, and such prediction ability is higher than that based on ALB or ALP levels alone, more studies began to investigate these indicators in other types of cancer.7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. The gene discussed is ALB; the disease is cancer.