Choi J, et al. - Using prospectively collected longitudinal samples in patients at risk, researchers assessed the monitoring ability of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), lectin-reactive AFP (AFP-L3), des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), and their combinations for detecting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) early. There were 42 HCC cases diagnosed out of the 689 patients with cirrhosis and/or chronic hepatitis B who took part in four prospective studies. After these were selected, they were matched 1:4 with 168 controls for age, sex, etiology, cirrhosis and follow-up duration. According to findings, AFP was the best among three biomarkers at discerning HCC cases from controls. Data reported that the sensitivity and specificity of the combination of AFP and AFP-L3 was 79% and 87%, respectively with the optimal cutoff values. The sensitivity to detect HCC at a very early stage was significantly improved when the combination of AFP and AFP-L3 adopted cutoff values 5 ng/mL and 4%, respectively.