AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Tangkijvanich et al. (2010) found that the serum GPC3 level was increased in HCC patients, which was not related to AFP. Combined detection of the two proteins can improve the sensitivity of early HCC detection. It has also been reported that combined detection of GPC3 and Heat shock protein 70 or heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) glutamine synthetase can more sensitively and specifically distinguish early or grade 1 HCC from cirrhosis (Silvia et al., 2012).