Beyond liver cancer, more application scenarios for alpha-fetoprotein in clinical practice

Abstract

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a commonly used clinical biomarker. Before 1970, the two-way agar diffusion method was mainly used, and the specificity of AFP in the diagnosis of primary liver cancer was satisfactory. However, its positivity rate was not very high. The diagnostic value of AFP is changing with the evolution of detection methods. Here, we performed a literature search to identify English-language publications. The search was performed from January 2015 to April 2023 using the PubMed database and the following terms in [Titles/Abstracts]: alpha-fetoprotein, clinical practice, detection, etc. The references of retrieved articles were also screened to broaden the search. Studies referring to liver cancer and AFP detection methods were excluded. In this review, several clinical application scenarios for AFP were systematically reviewed, and its potential detection value in the future was discussed.

An unusual cause of significantly elevated blood alpha-fetoprotein levels: a case report and literature review

“…The significant elevation of AFP level is common in tumor diseases such as HCC and GCTs(testicular cancer, ovarian cancer, teratoma, etc.). Moreover, the elevation of AFP level is rare in tumor diseases such as gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer ( 1 ); The level of AFP is slightly increased in patients with viral hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, reaching generally no more than 300ng/mL.…”

“…Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a glycoprotein belonging to the albumin family, which is synthesized by fetal hepatocytes and yolk sacs. It serves as a major diagnostic marker for HCC and GCTs, exhibiting slight elevation in hepatitis and cirrhosis, and occasional elevation in other tumors such as gastric cancer and bowel cancer ( 1 ). This paper presents a case of a healthy elderly male who incidentally showed a significant increase in blood AFP levels during physical examination.…”