In distinguishing patients with early HCC from patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), the AUROC, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of Egfl7 were 0.800, 75.2, 71.7 and 73.5%, which were all significantly higher than AFP (0.675, 61.8, 62.0 and 61.9% in order). This evidence concerns the gene AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma.