Abstract: Objective To explore the clinical diagnosis significance of single or combined testing the levels of serum des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin(DCP) and alpha-fetoprotein(AFP) in primary liver cancer(PLC). Methods The serum levels of DCP and AFP in 70 patients with PLC,in 50 patients with cirrhosis of liver,and in 50 patients with viral hepatitis type B and in 50 healthy cases were detected by the enzyme-link immunosorbent assay(ELISA).The difference was compared with each other.The Spearman correlation analysis was performed to explore the relation between DCP and AFP.The sensitivity and specificity of the DCP and AFP for the diagnosis of PLC were analyzed by ROC Curve.The clinical diagnosis value of DCP and AFP in PLC was evaluated. Results The serum DCP and AFP level in the PLC group was significantly higher than that in the cirrhosis of liver group,in the viral hepatitis type B group and in the healthy cases group,the differences was statically significant(P＜0.01).The Area Under Curve of the ROC Curve of the DCP single detection for PLC was greater than that AFP(P＜0.01).The area under Curve of the ROC Curve of the DCP and AFP were 0.977(95%CI:0.954-1.000) and 0.853(95%CI:0.785-0.921),respectively.There were not significantly correlation between AFP and DCP level by Spearman correlation analysis.The sensitivity(90.0%) and specificity(97.3%) of DCP single detection were significantly higher than AFP for the diagnosis of PLC.The sensitivity(95.7%) increased in the clinical diagnosis of the PLC by using AFP and DCP combined detection. Conclusion DCP is a very effective serum tumor maker in the clinical diagnosis of the PLC.DCP and AFP combined detection can increase the sensitivity in the PLC clinical diagnosis and refrain from the missed diagnosis of the PLC.