title: Simultaneous measurements of serum AFP, GPC-3 and HCCR for diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent malignant tumor. Tumor markers are very useful in early diagnosis; however a single marker is rather limited. We launched a test to increase the diagnostic sensitivity through the combined detection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum concentration of three tumor-markers, Glypican-3 (GPC-3), Human-Cervical-Cancer-Oncogene (HCCR) and a-fetoprotein (AFP), were determined in 189 samples: 101 cases of HCC, 40 cases of cirrhosis, 18 cases of hepatitis and 30 cases of control healthy donors. Every marker was evaluated for its diagnostic value by one-way-analysis-of-variance and receiver-operating-characteristics analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GPC-3 was the best marker with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.892; using 26.8ng/mL as the cut-off for HCC diagnosis, GPC-3 has a sensitivity of 51.5% and maintains a specificity of 92.8%. HCCR, with an AUC of 0.831, can reach a sensitivity of 22.8% and maintain a specificity of 90.9% if the cut-off is set as 58.8mAU/mL. With an AUC of 0.827, the efficacy and sensitivity of AFP were 36.6% and 98.5% when using 199.3ng/mL as the cut-off. No significant correlation was found between these three markers. Simultaneously detecting three markers can significantly increases the sensitivity to 80.2%, much higher than AFP alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GPC-3 and HCCR are useful tumor markers complementary to AFP for clinical diagnosis of HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shi-Shi
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Zhu-Qing-Qing
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Peng-Cheng
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li-Min
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yu-Hua
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Seon-Ah
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Jin Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Zhong-Tian
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ji-Run
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Xi-Sheng
authors.initials: XS
authors.lastname: Leng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D053673:Glypicans / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053673:Glypicans; C476732:LETMD1 protein, human; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins