Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in China because of high incidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.HCC is diagnosed at a late stage in most of the cases; therefore the prognosis of patients with HCC is generally poor.Early diagnosis and surgical treatment are of great clinical desirable to improve prognosis of HCC.Tumor marker is an effective means for early diagnosis,prognosis assessment and recurrence monitoring.In addition to alpha fetoprotein (AFP),Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive AFP (AFP-L3),des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP),glypican-3,N-glycome markers,candidate-susceptibility genes,microRNAs and several other biomarkers have been revealed as potential HCC markers and will be applied in clinical laboratory gradually.In this review,the efficacies of novel HCC markers and their possible implications for clinical application are described.