Objectives Early onset of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (males and females under the age of 40 or 50 years old, respectively) has a significant prevalence and poor prognosis; however, few studies have reported the risk factors and development of HCC in such cases.Methods In this study, we retrospectively analyzed clinical, laboratory and demographic data from 588 treatment-na? ve HCC patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated liver cirrhosis (LC) and 708 age-matched HBV-associated LC patients as control in Beijing302 Hospital.