Feng H, Li B, Li Z, et al. - Since new biomarkers are needed to improve the accuracy of early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis, researchers assessed the diagnostic ability of prothrombin induced by vitamin K deficiency or antagonist- II (PIVKA-II) as a potential biomarker that complements α-fetoprotein (AFP) in HCC by identifying serum PIVKA-II concentrations. Participants included 168 HCC cases, 150 benign liver disease cases and 153 healthy controls. Significantly higher serum PIVKA-II levels were present in HCC patients vs those with benign liver disease and healthy controls. In the light of this study's findings, PIVKA-II was suggested as a promising serum biomarker for HCC diagnosis that can be applied as a supplement for AFP. A great improvement in the diagnostic efficiency of HCC was conferred by the combined diagnosis of the two markers. In HCC cases, PIVKA-II concentrations were shown to be widely related to clinicopathological features representing tumor cell dissemination and/or poor prognosis. The therapeutic impacts of HCC resection can be assessed by using PIVKA-II.