Study for the Significance of Osteopontin vs Alpha Feto Protein as a Diagnostic Marker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Cirrhotic Patients with HCV

Abstract Background Outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) depends mainly on its early diagnosis. The performance of traditional biomarkers is not satisfactory. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the most widely used serum biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), despite its limitations. Several studies have reported that osteopontin (OPN) is a promising marker for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, some studies emerged with conflicting results, Aim of the Work To evaluate the clinical significance of the plasma osteopontin (OPN) versus alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in the diagnosis of HCC in cirrhotic patients Patients and Methods This study was Case-Control study, was conducted at internal Medicine and Gastroenterology outpatient clinics and ward in Ain Shams University Hospitals on Patients divided into 3 groups: (Group 1): 50 patients with previously diagnosed HCC on top of chronic HCV induced cirrhosis, (Group II): 15 chronic HCV patients with cirrhosis, (Group III):15 healthy controls during a period of Six months Results There was high statistically significant difference between the studied groups as regard OPN and AFP, Conclusion Plasma OPN level was elevated in the HCV-related HCC patients by comparison to the chronic HCV patients with cirrhosis and healthy controls. OPN is a promising tumor marker that could be added to the current standard tests for the diagnosis of HCC in patients with liver cirrhosis, due to Chronic HCV infection, in order to detect the disease at an early stage and, hence, improve the prognosis and survival rates of these patients