Additionally, ROC (receiver operating characteristics) analysis demonstrated that the diagnostic performance of the combination of circ-CDYL, HDGF, and HIF1AN for early-stage HCC (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.73) surpassed that of the traditional biomarker α-fetoprotein (AFP) (AUC = 0.59) [119]. This evidence concerns the gene HDGF and hepatocellular carcinoma.