Chen H, et al. - Experts conducted a direct comparison of five representative serum biomarkers for detecting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to derive multi-marker prediction algorithms. They recruited 846 patients from three hospitals in China, including 202 HCC patients, 226 liver cirrhosis patients, 215 chronic hepatitis B virus-infected patients, and 203 healthy volunteers. In the early diagnosis of HCC, des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin could be a complementary biomarker. HCC could be distinguished from non-malignant chronic liver diseases with help of the constructed multi-marker prediction algorithms using es-gamma-carboxyprothrombin, and alpha-fetoprotein.