In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), CTCs can be identified using liver and HCC specific markers (e.g., glypican-3 and asialoglycoprotein receptor), epithelial markers (e.g., epithelial cell adhesion molecule -EpCAM- and cytokeratin -CK-), epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers (e.g., vimentin and twist), and stem cell markers (e.g., CD44 and CD90). Here, CD44 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.