Abstract
BackgroundEarly diagnosis can significantly improve treatment outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Currently, the dosage of serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP) is widely used in the diagnosis of HCC, but this biomarker has low specificity and may cause false positive or false negative results. Thus, it’s necessary to find and validate other serum tumor markers that in association for AFP would increase the sensitivity and the specificity in the HCC diagnosis. This study investigated the predictive value of combined of AFP, AFP-L3, and Circulating tumor cells (CTCs).MethodsA total of 105 patients with HCC after microwave ablation (MWA) were divided into non recurrence group, recurrence group, good prognosis (CR + PR group, CR: Complete remission, PR: Partial remission) and poor prognosis (SD + PD group, SD: Stable, PD: Progression). ROC curve was used to analyze the short-term efficacy, prognosis and clinical value of combined detection of the three indicators in predicting postoperative recurrence of HCC patients with MWA.ResultsThe positive rate of serum CTCs, AFP-L3 and AFP combined detection in the diagnosis of HCC is higher than that of single index and two index detection. The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of serum CTCs, AFP-L3 and AFP combined detection was better than that of single index and two indexes in patients with HCC after MWA.ConclusionsCombined detection of AFP, AFP-L3, and CTCs can effectively make up for the shortcomings of the detection with single and pairwise indicators. It can’t only diagnose HCC in early, but also has a high clinical value of predicting the short-term efficacy, prognosis and recurrence of HCC patients after MWA treatment.
Highlights
Diagnosis can significantly improve treatment outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients
alpha fetoprotein (AFP) does not have a strong specificity in the diagnosis of HCC, and there are certain limitations on the application [5]: the AFP level would increase when patients are in pregnancy or get embryonic cancer; AFP is in close link with the primary site, tumor type, and degree of cell differentiation, which might lead to the reports of false positives or false negatives
Statistical analysis SPSS 20.0 was used for data analysis, the measurement data of serum AFP-L3, AFP, Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) levels were expressed as mean ± standard deviation, t-test was used for between-group comparison; F-test was used for comparison between multiple groups, SNK-q test was used for pairwise comparison; Chi-square test was used to compare the positive rate of AFP-L3 % between the two groups; ROC curve was used to analyze the clinical predictive value of single and combined detection of AFPL3, AFP, CTCs, and P < 0.05 was considered as statistically different
Summary
A total of 105 patients with HCC after microwave ablation (MWA) were divided into non recurrence group, recurrence group, good prognosis (CR + PR group, CR: Complete remission, PR: Partial remission) and poor prognosis (SD + PD group, SD: Stable, PD: Progression). ROC curve was used to analyze the short-term efficacy, prognosis and clinical value of combined detection of the three indicators in predicting postoperative recurrence of HCC patients with MWA
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