title: Tumor Markers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Simple and Significant Predictors of Outcome in Patients with HCC.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The effectiveness of tumor markers in evaluating outcomes of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be clarified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The usefulness of the HCC tumor markers, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L3), and des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) was reviewed. Elevations in these tumor markers at the time of HCC diagnosis correlate with disease progression as assessed by both imaging studies and pathologic examinations. The combination of these three tumor markers results in good predictive ability for patient survival after diagnosis. In addition, combination at the time of HCC diagnosis of these three tumor markers (as a measure of tumor progression) and serum albumin and bilirubin levels (as indicators of remnant liver function) can be used for HCC staging and further predicts prognosis in patients with HCC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prognosis of patients with HCC can be well discriminated based solely on serum markers. Staging of HCC with serum markers is objective; if stored serum samples are available, HCC stages can be standardized across different countries and time periods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toyoda
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kumada
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.affiliation: Radiology, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sone
authors.affiliation: Surgery, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaneoka
authors.affiliation: Surgery, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsuyuki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maeda
keywords: Alpha-fetoprotein; Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of alpha-fetoprotein; Prognosis