AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Besides the classical breast cancer markers, cancer antigen 125 (CA 125) [10], as a marker for ovarian cancer, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) associated with pancreatic lesions and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), implicated in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and germ-cell tumors [1,11] have been considered as these markers have demonstrated the ability to detect malignancy or recurrence of disease prior to clinical diagnosis [12].