From the results of this study, for the diagnosis of primary liver cancer, the single detection of serum MIF, GP73, PIVKA-II, AFP-L3 or AFP had a sensitivity of 84.91%, 86.79%, 77.36%, 81.13% and 83.02%, respectively; a specificity of 78.38%, 72.97%, 81.08%, 75.68% and 81.08%, respectively; an accuracy of 82.22%, 81.11%, 78.89%, 78.89% and 82.22%, respectively, indicating that all the five serological tumor markers had certain diagnostic value and could be used for the early diagnosis of primary liver cancer. Here, MIF is linked to liver cancer.