title: Clinical utility of plasma glypican-3 and osteopontin as biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is the biomarker most widely used to detect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), despite its suboptimal diagnostic accuracy. Glypican-3 (GPC3) and osteopontin (OPN) are secreted glycoproteins that are reportedly associated with tumorigenesis and metastasis. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical utility of using plasma GPC3 and OPN as diagnostic biomarkers for HCC.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured the plasma levels of GPC3 and OPN in 120 HCC and 40 chronic liver disease (CLD) patients via an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The diagnostic accuracy of each tumor marker was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The GPC3 levels in the HCC patients (75.8 ng/mL) were significantly higher (p=0.020) than the levels in patients with CLD (66.4 ng/mL). The area under the ROC curve (AUROC) values for GPC3 and OPN were 0.62 and 0.51, respectively. In subgroup analyses, including subgroups of HCC patients with low serum AFP and PIVKA II levels, the AUROC of GPC3 remained relatively high (0.66), and GPC3 showed a high sensitivity (62.1%) for detecting small HCC tumors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The plasma levels of GPC3 and OPN demonstrated low diagnostic accuracy for HCC. However, GPC3 may have a complementary role in diagnosing HCC in patients with nondiagnostic levels of conventional tumor markers and with small-sized tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jong Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Yeon
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Jun
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sun Jae
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Eileen L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Keunhee
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yang Jae
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ji Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yeon Seok
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung Joon
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kwan Soo
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Byun
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D053673:Glypicans; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053495:Osteopontin / Q000097:blood*; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C105937:GPC3 protein, human; D053673:Glypicans; D053495:Osteopontin
keywords: Glypican-3; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Osteopontin