title: Simple and robust diagnosis of early, small and AFP-negative primary hepatic carcinomas: an integrative approach of serum fluorescence and conventional blood tests.
abstract: The diagnosis of early, small and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-negative primary hepatic carcinomas (PHCs) remains a significant challenge. We developed a simple and robust approach to noninvasively detect these PHCs. A rapid, high-throughput and single-tube method was firstly developed to measure serum autofluorescence and cell-free DNA (cfDNA)-related fluorescence using a real-time PCR system, and both types of serum fluorescence were measured and routine laboratory data were collected in 1229 subjects, including 353 PHC patients, 331 liver cirrhosis (LC) patients, 213 chronic hepatitis (CH) patients and 332 normal controls (NC). The results showed that fluorescence indicators of PHC differed from those of NC, CH and LC to various extents, and all of them were not associated with age, gender, or AFP level. The logistic regression models established with the fluorescence indicators alone and combined with AFP, hepatic function tests and blood cell analyses were valuable for distinguishing early, small, AFP-negative and all PHC from LC, CH, NC and all non-PHC, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves 0.857-0.993 and diagnostic accuracies 80.2-97.7%. Conclusively, serum autofluorescence and cfDNA-related fluorescence are able to be rapidly and simultaneously measured by our simple method and valuable for diagnosing early, small and AFP-negative PHCs, especially integrating with AFP and conventional blood tests.
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Ting
authors: T
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Kun-He
authors: KH
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Piao-Ping
authors: PP
authors: Hu
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Zeng-Yong
authors: ZY
authors: Huang
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Pan
authors: P
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Qin-Si
authors: QS
authors: Wan
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: De-Qiang
authors: DQ
authors: Huang
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors: Nong-Hua
authors: NH
authors: Lv
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002474:Cell-Free System; D005260:Female; D005453:Fluorescence; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins
keywords: AFP-negative hepatoma; diagnostic model; early diagnosis; primary hepatic carcinoma; serum fluorescence