In analyses stratified by age, sex, tumor capsule, tumor size, liver cirrhosis, HBsAg, AFP, ALT, AST, Child-Pugh, and BCLC stage, inclusion of a quadratic term for serum prealbumin in the Cox proportional hazard models revealed a linear correlation between serum prealbumin and all-cause mortality. The gene discussed is GPT; the disease is cirrhosis of liver.