Clinical Significance Of Fucosylated Gp73 In The Differential Diagnosis Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the clinical value of fucosylated GP73 (Fuc-GP73) levels for differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma from other liver diseases. Methods: Serum specimens were collected from 50 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, 60 patients with other digestive system diseases (ODSD), and 40 normal controls. Lectin affinity chromatography column combining with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using the ELISA index was utilized to measure the level of Fuc-GP73. By receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis its sensitivity and specificity were used to evaluate the diagnostic significance of Fuc-GP73 in hepatocellular carcinoma. Results: The median serum Fuc-GP73 level of hepatocellular carcinoma (20.4 mu g/L) was much higher than that of ODSD patients (1.8 mu g/L) and the normal controls group (0.3 mu g/L), significantly (P <0.01). There was no significant correlation between serum Fuc-GP73 level and sex, age, and tumor size in the hepatocellular carcinoma group (P > 0.05); however, it was related to tumor, node, metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis (P <0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of Fuc-GP73 to detect hepatocellular carcinoma alone was 0.885; with the prespecified specificity of 95%, the sensitivity and the cutoff value were 82% and 3.1 mu g/L. In addition, the combined test of Fuc-GP73 with other biomarkers can improve the clinical diagnostic efficiency; the AUC can reach to 0.983; and with the prespecified specificity of 95% its sensitivity increased to 94%. Conclusion: Fuc-GP73 can act as a superior glycobiomarker for the differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma; its combined detection with other biomarkers can improve diagnostic accuracy.