Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide and about 500,000 people die of it each year . More than 90% of HCC cases develop as a consequence of underlying liver diseases, and hepatic cirrhosis occurs in 80% of cases [2–4]. More than 60% of patients are diagnosed with late-stage disease after metastasis has occurred , resulting in an overall 5-year survival rate of <16% . If appropriate treatments are performed in early stage, the 5-year survival rates of HCC patients will exceed 75% . Thus, detection of HCC at an early stage significantly impacts outcomes in patients. The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) once recommended that AFP and ultrasound examination were used for HCC surveillance in hepatic cirrhosis population, but analysis of recent studies shows that AFP determination lacks adequate sensitivity and specificity for effective surveillance . Novel biomarkers are urgently needed for the screening of HCC to reduce its high mortality; many studies have reported that lens culinaris agglutinin reactive AFP (AFP-L3) and Golgi protein 73 (GP73) are effective for the HCC early diagnosis [9–11], but there has been a lack of clinical follow-up from hepatic cirrhosis stage to HCC. The goal of the present study is to estimate the risk prediction value of some serum markers during the progression from hepatic cirrhosis to HCC.