AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Furthermore, the overexpression of CCAT1-70aa is significantly associated with the tumor pathological stage (P = 0.049), serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) concentration (P = 0.030), and vascular invasion (P = 0.020), as shown in Table 1, suggesting that CCAT1-70aa may serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.