Previous investigation has found EGCG can induce autophagy of hepatoma cells by inhibiting the formation of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3)-I dimer and promoting the synthesis of characteristic autophagic protein LC3-II, thus modulating the degradation of α-fetoprotein (AFP) that is relevant to malignant differentiation, metastasis, and poor prognosis of HCC (Zhao et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma.