title: Plasma interleukin 17 in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a retrospective study of 39 cases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the diagnosis efficacy of plasma interleukin 17 (IL-17) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-nine patients with confirmed HCC and 41 healthy controls were retrospectively analyzed in this study. The serum level of IL-17 was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. And the plasma level of carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) were arrayed by radioimmunoassay. The plasma level of IL-17, CEA and AFP between HCC and healthy control group were compared. And the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for IL-17, CEA and AFP in patients with HCC was calculated using the GraphPad Prism 5.0 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The plasma level of IL-17, CEA and AFP were 2.88 ± 1.75 (ng/L), 2.99 ± 2.12 (μg/L) and 6.91 ± 4.56 (mg/L) in healthy control group and 5.57 ± 1.59 (ng/L), 8.31 ± 5.40 (μg/L) and 190.50 ± 79.08 (mg/L) in HCC group. Plasma level of IL-17, CEA and AFP in HCC group was statistical higher than in healthy control group (all P < 0.05). For plasma IL-17, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 74.36% and 75.61% at the cut-off value of 4.23 (ng/L) with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.86; For plasma CEA, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 69.23% and 70.73% at the cut-off value of 4.14 (μg/L) with the area under the ROC curve of 0.80; For plasma AFP, he diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 100.00% and 65.85% at the cut-off value of 10.25 (mg/L) with the area under the ROC curve of 0.96.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Plasma IL-17 was significant elevated in patients with HCC compared to healthy control group which could be a potential biomarker for diagnosis of HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, The 2nd People's Hospital of Tianjin, Tianjin 300192, China.
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Guoqiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, The 2nd People's Hospital of Tianjin, Tianjin 300192, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000097:blood*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C508717:IL17A protein, human; D020381:Interleukin-17