TF and hepatocellular carcinoma: Based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and western blot, transferrin was up-regulated in patients of LM (Fig. 1B and C and Table S1) and the average transferrin concentration in the plasma of LM (n = 26) was 2.13 mg/ml (standard deviation [SD] 0.89), whereas that in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (n = 20) was 1.15 mg/ml (SD 0.27) and healthy individuals (n = 24) was 1.32 mg/ml (SD 0.30) (Fig. 1B).