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This study aimed to investigate the clinical and pathologic characteristics between AFP positive and negative HCC patients to allow for improved clinical management and prognostication of the disease.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>This study observed a cohort of HCC patients from Eastern and Southern China with comparisons of the clinical and pathologic features between serum AFP positive and negative patient groups; patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis, those with chronic hepatitis B, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) asymptomatic carrier patients were used as controls. Data included the laboratory results, pathology diagnosis, clinical staging and scores were obtained from routine clinical diagnostic methods.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Patients with HCC, larger tumor sizes, liver cancer with hepatic cirrhosis, portal vein thrombosis, metastasis, high Child\u2013Pugh score, high Barcelona-Cl\u00ednic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage, and advanced clinical stage had significantly higher serum AFP levels. Also, patients with HBsAg and HBeAg positive, high HBV DNA levels had significantly higher serum AFP levels. Patients with high serum AFP levels had higher protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alpha-l-fucosidase (AFU), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (\u03b3-GT), \u03b3-GT \/ALT, direct bilirubin (DBIL), indirect bilirubin (IDBIL), fibrinogen, and D-dimer levels. Patients with AFP positive had higher white blood cells (WBC), neutrophil, monocyte, and platelet count and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR).<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>The are significant differences in clinical pathologic characteristics between AFP positive and negative HCC patients which may be helpful for the management and prognostication of the disease.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12876-022-02279-w","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,23]],"date-time":"2022-04-23T04:18:23Z","timestamp":1650687503000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":28,"title":["A comparison of clinical pathologic characteristics between alpha-fetoprotein negative and positive hepatocellular carcinoma patients from Eastern and Southern China"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Xiaowei","family":"Chi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liejun","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yulin","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinyan","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuemei","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steven","family":"Hochwald","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huayi","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"2279_CR1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.iarc.who.int\/featured-news\/new-world-cancer-report\/"},{"issue":"6","key":"2279_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"571","DOI":"10.21147\/j.issn.1000-9604.2018.06.01","volume":"30","author":"R Zheng","year":"2018","unstructured":"Zheng R, Qu C, Zhang S, Zeng H, Sun K, Gu X, Xia C, Yang Z, Li H, Wei W, Chen W, He J. 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Patients\u2019 written informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board\/ Ethics Committee of The Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and The People\u2019s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. All methods used in this study were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations in routine clinical practice. All experimental protocols were approved by The Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and The People\u2019s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"202"}}