AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: In comparisons between the HCC group and the CHB group, the AUC for AFP alone was 0.8478 (95% CI [0.784–0.911]) with the optimal cut-off value 6.48 ng/ml(sensitivity 69.90% and specificity 97.50%), and for sST2 along the AUC was 0.7094 (95% CI [0.619–0.800]) with the optimal cut-off value 8.45 μg/L(sensitivity 80.6% and specificity 52.5%), as depicted in Fig. 2C.