Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),one of the most common malignant tumors,is the main cause of cancer death in China.Early diagnosis of the disease is of great importance.Serum tumor markers have been effective for detecting HCC for a long time.Among those markers,alpha fetoprotein (AFP) is the most widely used one in detecting patients with HCC,but it has limited utility for detecting HCC due to its limited sensitivity and specificity.Searching better markers for HCC has been a research focus in recent years.This review introduces many useful markers to supplement AFP for detecting HCC.