title: Plasma Circulating Cell-free DNA Integrity as a Promising Biomarker for Diagnosis and Surveillance in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
abstract: The clinical significance of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) integrity as diagnostic and surveillance biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was investigated and compared to that of alpha fetoprotein (AFP). Liver cancer patients had lower cfDNA integrity than those with benign diseases (P= 0.0167) and healthy individuals (P= 0.0025). Patients with HCC and non-HCC liver cancers (P= 0.7356), and patients with benign diseases and healthy individuals (P= 0.9138) had comparable cfDNA integrity respectively. cfDNA integrity increased after hepatectomy in cancer patients (P= 0.0003). The AUCs for detecting HCC by cfDNA integrity and AFP were 0.705 (P= 0.005) and 0.605 (P= 0.156), respectively. We found cfDNA integrity decreased in HCC patients and has the potential as promising biomarker for HCC diagnosis and treatment surveillance.
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University.
authors.forename: Ao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University.
authors.forename: Shao-Lai
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Institute, Central South University.
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University.
authors.forename: Xiao-Wu
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University.
authors.forename: Xin-Rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Liver Surgery Department, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University; State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: cfDNA; circulating cell-free DNA; hepatocellular carcinoma.; integrity