title: Clinical evaluation of urinary transforming growth factor-beta1 and serum alpha-fetoprotein as tumour markers of hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: To evaluate the diagnostic application of urinary transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), TGF-beta1 and AFP were determined in 94 patients with cirrhotic HCC and in 94 sex- and age-matched patients with cirrhosis alone. TGF-beta1 and AFP levels in HCC were higher than in cirrhosis alone (P = 0.0001). There is an inverse correlation between TGF-beta1 and log AFP (r = -0.292, P = 0.004). Multivariate analysis indicated that TGF-beta1 and AFP were closely associated, in a dose-related fashion, with the development of HCC. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the optimal cut-off values of TGF-beta1 (50 microg g(-1) creatinine) and AFP (100 ng ml(-1)). Both TGF-beta1 and AFP showed a high specificity (99%) and positive likelihood ratio. The sensitivity was 53.1% for TGF-beta1 and 55.3% for AFP. The determination of both markers in parallel significantly increased the diagnostic accuracy (90.1%) and sensitivity (84%), with a high specificity (98%) and positive likelihood ratio (40.0). In conclusion, TGF-beta1 and AFP are independent tumour markers of HCC and may be used as complementary tumour markers to discriminate HCC from cirrhosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical College, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Jeng
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Z Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000652:urine*; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins