Serum AFP and AFP-L3 in clinically distinguished hepatocellular carcinoma from patients with liver masses
Subwongcharoen, S.; Leelawat, K.; Treepongkaruna, S.-a.; Narong, S.
Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand 94(Suppl 2): S46-S51
2011
ISSN/ISBN: 0125-2208 PMID: 21717878 Document Number: 14866
To determine the ability of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and AFP-L3% serum level in discriminating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from other types of liver mass. This study was performed according to a prospective-specimen-collection, retrospective-blinded-evaluation (PRoBE) design. A total of 109 HCC patients and 51 patients with other types of liver mass were consecutively selected. The levels of AFP and AFP-L3% in their sera were measured. AFP levels in serum significantly elevated while AFP-L3% levels significantly decreased in HCC patients (AFP: p < 0.001, AFP-L3%: p < 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) of a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for the diagnosis of HCC of AFP and AFP-L3% was 0.71 and 0.67, respectively. In addition, the serum level of AFP-L3% was significantly different between the small (mass occupying lesser than 50% of liver volume) and large (mass occupying more than 50% of liver volume) HCC (p = 0.040). The diagnostic accuracy of serum AFP and AFP-L3% could provide them as candidate biomarkers to discriminate patients with HCC from patients with other types of liver mass. Serum AFP-L3% as a prognostic factor for HCC should be further evaluated in more details.