title: Serum markers of hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in some areas of the world with increasing incidence worldwide. Most of patients with HCC are diagnosed at a late stage. Therefore, the prognosis of HCC patients is generally very poor with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. Screening strategies including alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and ultrasound every 6 months in patients with liver cirrhosis, the major risk factor for HCC development, have been recommended to detect HCC at earlier stages amenable to effective treatment strategies. AFP, however, is a marker with poor sensitivity and specificity and the ultrasound is highly dependent on the operator's experience. Apart from AFP, lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive AFP and des-gamma carboxyprothrombin and several other biomarkers (e.g., glypican-3, human hepatocyte growth factor, and insulin-like growth factor) have been proposed as markers for HCC detection. In addition, with recently employed techniques, such as gene-expressing microarrays and proteomics, it is to be expected that new HCC-specific markers will become available in the near future. For all such proposed markers, however, the clinical usefulness has to be carefully evaluated and validated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine II, University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Spangenberg
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thimme
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Blum
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor