Wang Z, et al. - The current study determined the correlation between post-operative early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and mesenchymal circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood. A risk of early recurrence (ER) among HCC patients with positive peripheral mesenchymal circulating tumor cells (CTCs) was shown. Thus, mesenchymal CTCs could be a potential biomarker in HCC prognosis monitoring.