Real impact of tumor marker AFP and PIVKA-II in detecting very small hepatocellular carcinoma (≤ 2 cm, Barcelona stage 0) - assessment with large number of cases

Table 1 Background of the hepatocellular carcinoma patients

	Maximum diameter of nodules
		≤ 20 mm	> 20 mm
Number of patients		394	539
Sex	Male	230 (58.4%)	392 (72.7%)
	Female	164 (41.6%)	147 (22.3%)
Age in yr		71.3 ± 8.8	72.5 ± 10.1
Etiology	HBV	33 (8.4%)	39 (7.2%)
	HCV	274 (69.5%)	266 (49.4%)
	PBC	4 (1.0%)	6 (1.1%)
	Alcohol	17 (4.3%)	53 (9.8%)
	NASH	4 (1.0%)	8 (1.5%)
	Autoimmune hepatitis	3 (0.8%)	2 (0.4%)
	Unknown	23 (5.8%)	62 (11.5%)

HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; NASH: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; PBC: Primary biliary cirrhosis.