AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Among patients with early-stage HCV-induced HCC (BCLC stage 0 + A, n = 57), PIVKA-II alone (AUC 0.897, 0.851–0.933) performed better than AFP alone (AUC 0.740, 0.678–0.795) or AFP-L3 alone (AUC 0.634, 0.568–0.697) (Figure 3).