The prediction of HCC recurrence based on the AFP model was associated with a c-statistic of 0.606 (95% CI: 0.701–0.847), which was superior relative to the Up-to-7 (0.528; 95% CI: 0.496–0.559; P < 0.05) and Metroticket 2.0 models (0.525; 95% CI: 0.499–0.550; P < 0.05) (Fig. 1D). This evidence concerns the gene AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma.