Article type: Research Article
Authors: Zhang, Guoxin | Ha, Seon-Ah | Kim, Hyun K. | Yoo, Jinah | Kim, Sanghee | Lee, Youn S. | Hur, Soo Y. | Kim, Yong W. | Kim, Tae E. | Park, Yong G. | Wang, Jing | Yang, Yang | Xu, Zekuan | Song, Eun Y. | Huang, Zuhu | Jirun, Peng | Zhongtian, Jin | Shishi, Qiao | Zhuqingqing, Cui | Lei, Gong | Kim, Jin W.;
Affiliations: Department of Gastroenterology, the First Affiliated
Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China | Department of Molecular Genetic Laboratory, College of
Medicine, the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea | Department of Clinical Pathology, College of Medicine,
the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea | Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of
Medicine, the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea | Department of Biostatistics, College of Medicine, the
Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea | The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and
Biotechnology, Daejeon, Korea | Department of Hepatobiliary, Surgery, Peking
University People's Hospital, Beijing, China
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Jin Woo Kim, Molecular Genetic
Laboratory, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul
137-040, Korea. Tel.: +82 11 9014 2389; Fax: +82 2 593 2389; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignant
tumors in the world. The only serological marker widely used for the diagnosis
of HCC is alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Despite that AFP is widely used for the
diagnosis of HCC, it has a limit as a serological marker due to its low
sensitivity and specificity. The human cervical cancer proto-oncogene 1
(HCCR-1) was previously reported as a new biomarker for HCC. To further
evaluate the HCCR-1 as a biomarker for HCC, we conducted the prospective cohort
study. We evaluated the significance of simultaneous measurement of 2 tumor
markers in the diagnosis of HCC in China, Japan and Korea. Two markers for HCC,
AFP and HCCR-1, were measured in the sera obtained from 1,338 patients at the
time of initial diagnosis of HCC. Of the 1338 HCC patients, 616 (46%) and
686 (51.3%) were sero-positive for AFP and HCCR-1, respectively. The
positive rate for HCC was increased up to 74.1% in combined use of AFP and
HCCR-1. Many cases (54%) for AFP-negative HCC were positive for HCCR-1 and
vice versa. More importantly, the diagnostic rate for small HCC (< 2 cm)
was significantly improved in the combined analysis of AFP and HCCR-1 to
56.9% although it was only 40.1% and 23.4% in the single analysis of
HCCR-1 and AFP, respectively. Our result suggests that the HCCR-1 could be an
useful biomarker for HCC while the diagnostic rate could be significantly
improved in the combined use of HCCR-1 and AFP.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, biomarker, AFP, HCCR-1
DOI: 10.3233/DMA-2011-0878
Journal: Disease Markers, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 265-271, 2012
Received 15 March 2012
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Accepted 15 March 2012
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Published: 2012
