Most patients with primary liver cancer are in the advanced stage at diagnosis and have missed the best timing of treatment, and therefore, increasing the early diagnostic rate of primary liver cancer has great significance in improving patients’ prognosis. There is a rapid progress in the research on new serum tumor markers, but their clinical application is still not satisfactory. The screening method of risk re-stratification based on the medical history of individuals at a high risk of primary liver cancer and conventional screening indices and adoption of different ways of screening based on the level of risk can improve patient compliance and thus increase the early diagnostic rate of primary liver cancer. This article reviews the research advances in the current status of early diagnosis of primary liver cancer, the early screening methods in the high-risk population, and early risk prediction.

Nucleos(t)ide analogues can effectively prevent or delay disease progression in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, but the course of treatment is long and long-term medication may bring the risk of adverse drug reactions and drug resistance. Recent studies have found that HBsAg quantification has an important value in individualized antiviral treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis B. This article reviews the research advances in the value of HBsAg quantification in judgment of indication for antiviral treatment with nucleos(t)ide analogues, prediction of therapeutic outcome, and timing of drug withdrawal, and it is pointed out that HBsAg quantification can help to determine the timing of antiviral treatment and predict the treatment outcome of patients at the beginning of antiviral treatment, during the treatment process, and when drug withdrawal is considered. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal predictive thresholds for different stages of HBeAg-positive or HBeAg-negative patients, as well as the optimal time point and thresholds for predicting treatment outcome during antiviral treatment with different nucleos(t)ide analogues.