Can serum glypican-3 be a biomarker for effective diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma? A meta-analysis of the literature.
OBJECTIVE
This review is to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum GPC3 for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) due to conflicting results reported.


METHODS
NCBI PubMed and Embase were comprehensively searched for studies that have used serum GPC3 level as a diagnostic index for HCC. The quality of the included studies was assessed. Subgroup analyses were conducted to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of GPC3 as a HCC marker. Statistical analysis was performed with the software STATA version 12.0.


RESULTS
A total of 22 studies were included. The qualities of included studies were relatively poor. Among them, 18 studies have shown that serum GPC3 is a specific biomarker for HCC, and the pooled sensitivity and specificity of these studies were 69 and 93%, respectively. The other 4 studies have reported conflicting results, which were not caused by races, infection status of HBV and HCV, or assay reagents but due to one common experimental design of enrolling liver cirrhosis patients as control subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
This meta-analysis indicates that serum GPC3 is elevated in HCC patients compared with healthy individuals, but more studies are needed to evaluate its effectiveness to differentially diagnose HCC and liver cirrhosis.
Department of General Surgery, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430077, China.
Sheng-Li
SL
Yang
Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Xiefan
X
Fang
Department of Rehabilitation, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430077, China.
Zao-Zao
ZZ
Huang
Department of Rehabilitation, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430077, China.
Xiang-Jie
XJ
Liu
Department of Medicine and Division of Digestion Disease, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430077, China.
Zhi-Fan
ZF
Xiong
Department of General Surgery, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430077, China.
Ping
P
Liu
Department of Rehabilitation, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430077, China.
Hong-Yi
HY
Yao
Hepatic Surgery Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong Science and Technology University, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, China.
Chang-Hai
CH
Li
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D053673:Glypicans / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C105937:GPC3 protein, human; D053673:Glypicans