Journal of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Dec 2020)
Serum Tumor Markers for Early Diagnosis of Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Abstract
Jingjing Zong,1,* Zhe Fan,1,2,* Yewei Zhang1 1Department of General Surgery, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of General Surgery, The Third People’s Hospital of Dalian, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116033, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yewei ZhangDepartment of General Surgery, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Dingjiaqiao NO. 87, Nanjing 210009, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected]: Primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequently occurring pernicious tumors in the world. It is typically very insidious in the early stages with no obvious symptoms. Its development and metastasis are very rapid. Upon diagnosis, most patients have already reached a local advanced stage or have established distant metastases. The treatment of HCC is limited, with poor prognosis and short natural survival time. In order to improve the efficiency of early diagnosis, it is particularly significant to choose economic and effective diagnosis methods. Ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography are usually used in the clinic, but these methods are extremely limited in the diagnosis of HCC. Tumor markers have become the main effective early clinical diagnosis method. Potential serum tumor markers include alpha fetoprotein heterogeneity, Golgi protein 73, phosphatidylinositol proteoglycan (GPC-3), osteopontin, abnormal prothrombin, and heat shock protein. These tumor markers provide new ideas and methods for the diagnosis of HCC. A combination of multiple markers can make up for the deficiency of single marker detection and provide a new strategy for the prognosis and auxiliary diagnosis of HCC. This review introduces protein tumor markers utilized over the past five years.Keywords: primary hepatic carcinoma, serum tumor marker, α-fetoprotein, alpha fetoprotein, heterogeneous Golgi protein 73, phosphatidylinositol proteoglycan, abnormal prothrombin, heat shock protein
