AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: In addition, a previous study (Saleh et al., 2020) revealed a highly significant difference between HCC and cirrhosis groups with regard to AFP, AST, (P value < 0.001, both), and ascites (P value < 0.006).On the contrary, they demonstrated no statistical significant difference between HCC and cirrhosis groups with regard to age (P value < 0.06), international normalized ratio (P value < 0.275), sex (P value < 0.102), lymphadenitis (P value < 0.089), splenomegaly (P value < 0.154), and bilirubin level (P value < 0.412).