title: Measurement of serum and tissue des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The total des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin (DCP) produced in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the surrounding non-cancer liver tissue was estimated and the correlation between tissue DCP and serum DCP levels was examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty patients with a single primary HCC nodule served as the subjects. The DCP was quantified by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay and the tissue volumes were estimated by computed tomography (CT).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean tissue DCP in the cancer tissue, non-cancer tissue and the whole HCC specimen was 147,400, 20,200 and 190,000 mAU, respectively, which correlated positively with the serum DCP level (r2 = 0.657, 0.452, and 0.684, respectively). The DCP expression levels in the cancer and non-cancer liver tissue were also confirmed by immunohistochemical detection of DCP.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The elevation of serum DCP levels in HCC patients is influenced by DCP production not only in the cancer tissue, but also in the surrounding non-cancer liver tissue.
authors.affiliation: Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Can-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inagaki
authors.forename: Ke-Ming
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kokudo
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugawara
authors.forename: Jia-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Munehiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang