Abstract:Objective To investigate diagnostic value of circulating cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (CKAP4) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods A total of 88 patients with HCC, 87 patients with chronic hepatitis B infection, 91 patients with cirrhosis, and 81 healthy controls were recruited from the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University during Jan. 2013 and Dec. 2017. Circulating levels of CKAP4 were evaluated with ELISA. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. Results Serum levels of CKAP4 increased significantly in HCC group compared with three control groups (P?0.05). There was no difference in performance (P?>?0.05) to identify HCC between CKAP4 [AUC?=?0.843, (95% CI: 0.799, 0.888), sensitivity 0.761, specificity 0.737] and α-fetoprotein. CKAP4 presented better performance [AUC?=?0.865, (95% CI: 0.814, 0.915)] to early diagnosis of HCC compared with α-fetoprotein (P?0.05), with sensitivity equal to 0.784 and specificity equal to 0.737. Conclusions Serum CKAP4 is a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of HCC.