Fig 1: Performance of candidate serum biomarkers and AFP in the serum validation cohort 1. a Serum levels of candidate biomarkers and AFP in the serum validation cohort 1, which contains 8 HCC cases (HCCs), 8 liver cirrhosis cases (LCs) and 8 healthy normal controls (NCs). In the plots, each dot represents one sample, with lines representing the median with interquartile range. Mann–Whitney test was used to compare the protein levels between two groups. b Performance of the candidate biomarkers discriminating the HCCs from NCs. c Performance of the candidate biomarkers discriminating the HCCs from LCs. Bars in (b, c) indicate the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) (95% confidence interval [CI]). P values were calculated using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. AFP, alpha-fetoprotein; AKR1B10, aldo–keto reductase family 1 member B10; ASPH, aspartate beta-hydroxylase; CANX, calnexin; CYBB, cytochrome b-245 beta chain; CKAP4, cytoskeleton associated protein 4; CTSA, cathepsin A; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; PARP1, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1; NME1, nucleoside diphosphate kinase A. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. n.s., not significant.