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Subject Area

Medical Biochemistry

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver cancer arising from the hepatocytes. The most prevalent noninvasive biological marker for diagnosis of HCC is alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Golgi protein 73 (GP73) was considered as an impending biological marker for the early diagnosis of HCC. Objectives To assess the value of GP73 in serum as a biological marker for HCC comparing its sensitivity and specificity with serum AFP. Methods This study included 90 participants (30 patients with hepatitis-C virus (HCV)-related HCC, 30 patients having liver cirrhosis on top of chronic HCV, and 30 healthy controls). The levels of AFP and GP73 in serum were measured by chemiluminescent immune-metric assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques, respectively. Results HCC and cirrhotic patients had considerably higher AFP (P < 0.001, <0.004) and GP73 (P < 0.001, 0.047) levels than controls, whereas HCC patients had significant higher values of AFP and GP73 than cirrhotic patients (P = 0.029, <0.001, respectively). Combined AFP + GP73 had the highest sensitivity and specificity (P < 0.001) for differentiating HCC patients from controls. In discrimination of HCC patients from cirrhotic patients, serum GP73 had the highest sensitivity and specificity (P < 0.001) than AFP (P = 0.009) and combined AFP + GP73 (P < 0.001). Moreover, in discrimination of metastatic patients from nonmetastatic ones, combined AFP + GP73 had the highest sensitivity (P < 0.001) than GP73 alone (P = 0.013), whereas AFP alone had the highest specificity (P = 0.058) than combined AFP + GP73. Conclusion GP73 is a reliable biological marker for early diagnosis and detection of distant metastasis of cancerous liver diseases in patients having liver cirrhosis on top of chronic HCV infection and it would yield better results when used combined with AFP.

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