Evaluation of biomarkers for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with hepatitis C virus

Abstract

Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequent and severe complication of chronic liver diseases. It represents an important public health problem in Egypt, where up to 90% of HCC cases are attributable to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The objective of the present study was to assess a panel of biomarkers that can significantly differentiate between HCC and non-HCC patients with chronic HCV infection (CHC), quantitatively. Methods: A total of 75 adult male patients with CHC were divided into 3 main groups according to liver involvement: HCV without cirrhosis (CHC), patients with cirrhotic liver (LC), and HCC patients. Liver function, lipid profile, HBsAg, HCV antibodies, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II), heparanase (HPSE), and lipid peroxidation were assayed. Results: The AST/ALT ratio, AFP, and HPSE were significantly different in the HCC group with the optimum cut-off values as ≥ 1.92, 64.7 ng/ml and 5.6 U/ml, respectively. By using these cut-off values combined; 96% of HCC patients showed two abnormal markers, corresponding to only 29% of the LC group. Conclusion: The use of combined HPSE, AFP and AST/ALT ratio cut-off values improved the positive predictive value for HCC from 79% to 96%. [J Exp Integr Med 2012; 2(4): 321-329

The Influence of C936T Gene in Wild of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Biochemical Variants Analysis for Alpha-Fetoprotein in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients in Egypt

“…The present study showed that there was a highly significant increase in serum ALP activity in the HCC group when compared to control group and untreated HCV infected group P<0.001, but There was a non significant increase in serum ALP activity in the untreated HCV infected group when compared to control group P = 0.249. This was in agreement with that reported by Sleisenger and Fordtran [32] and Morcos et al [1] who found that the conventional tests of hepatic function don't distinguish hepatocellular carcinoma from other hepatic masses or from cirrhosis. In this study there is a significant increase in serum total bilirubin in the HCC groups compared to control group, but showing non significantly variations between HCC group and HCV group.…”

“…The burden of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been increasing in Egypt with a doubling in the incidence rate in the past 10 years [1]. Early diagnosis of HCC is of great importance in order to offer the possibility of curative treatment.…”

Clinical utility of simple non-invasive liver fibrosis indices for predicting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among Egyptian patients

“…At a cut-off value of 1.92, the AST/ALT ratio was postulated by Morcos et al 31 to give the best sensitivity (83%) and specificity (71%) in differentiating HCC from patients with cirrhosis in their study done on 75 patients.…”

Serological tumor markers of hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

“…A weakness of this meta-analysis is the limited number of studies included. Also the meta-analysis could not be extended to other HCC markers, such as P53 (35), interleukins (41), osteopontin (34), talin I (36), lipocalin (37) and others (38–39–40, 42) due to the limited number of studies made on these markers. Of course, this meta-analysis had some limitations.…”