肝细胞癌在全球癌症相关死亡原因中排名第四，在中国排名第二。早期患有肝细胞癌（HCC）的患者与晚期患者相比，预后更好。因此，对HCC进行早期筛查对于临床治疗决策和改善患者预后至关重要。超声（US）、计算机断层扫描（CT）和血清α胎球蛋白（AFP）已被用于筛查HCC，但由于以上方法的低灵敏度，HCC仍然难以在早期诊断。寻找一种灵敏度和特异性都很高的早期诊断HCC方法非常紧迫。液体活检是一种使用血液或其他体液进行的无创检测方法。游离DNA（cfDNA）和循环肿瘤DNA（ctDNA）是液体活检的重要生物标志物。最近，利用cfDNA和ctDNA的HCC筛查方法已成为早期HCC诊断热点。在本小综述中，我们总结了基于血液cfDNA的液体活检在早期筛查HCC方面的最新研究进展。© 2023. 作者已独家授权Springer Science+Business Media, LLC、Springer Nature旗下使用。

Hepatocellular carcinoma ranks fourth in cancer-related causes of death worldwide and second in China. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at the early stage have a better prognosis compared to HCC patients at the late stage. Therefore, early screening for HCC is critical for clinical treatment decisions and improving the prognosis of patients. Ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP) have been used to screen HCC, but HCC is still difficult to be diagnosed in the early stage due to the low sensitivity of the above methods. It is urgent to find a method with high sensitivity and specificity for the early diagnosis of HCC. Liquid biopsy is a noninvasive detection method using blood or other bodily fluids. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are important biomarkers for liquid biopsy. Recently, HCC screening methods using the application of cfDNA and ctDNA have become the hot spot of early HCC diagnostics. In this mini review, we summarize the latest research progress of liquid biopsy based on blood cfDNA in early screening of HCC.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.