ACE and hepatocellular carcinoma: As summarized in Table 2, serum DCP in HCC patients positively correlated with gender, tumor size, tumor number, vascular invasion, hepatitis, AFP, ALT, AST, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, indirect bilirubin, albumin, and A/G ratio (p < 0.05), but negatively correlated with age (p < 0.05).