Zhou J, Yang W, Zhang S, et al. - In this study including patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and healthy controls (HCs), researchers focused on angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2), a secretory glycoprotein, as a biomarker for detecting HCC. This study included a discovery cohort and a validation cohort. Findings revealed better diagnostic efficiency of serum ANGPTL2 for distinguishing HCC from HC and for discriminating HCC from high-risk controls (CHB+LC). Furthermore, increased diagnostic accuracy for HCC may be achieved with the combination of ANGPTL2 and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) vs ANGPTL2 or AFP alone. Findings also revealed a correlation of ANGPTL2 levels with the detection of AFP-negative HCC. For detecting CHB-related HCC, ANGPTL2 could serve as a promising biomarker.