When HCC patients were divided into two groups (patients with HCC within early stage [n = 62] vs. patients with HCC beyond early stage [n = 17] based on the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer [BCLC] staging system), a median serum myostatin level of 6.7 ng/mL in patients with HCC within early stage was not significantly different from that of 7.2 ng/mL in patients with HCC beyond the early stage (p = 0.74). Here, MSTN is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.