Plasma interleukin 17 in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a retrospective study of 39 cases.

Abstract

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the diagnosis efficacy of plasma interleukin 17 (IL-17) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Thirty-nine patients with confirmed HCC and 41 healthy controls were retrospectively analyzed in this study. The serum level of IL-17 was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. And the plasma level of carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) were arrayed by radioimmunoassay. The plasma level of IL-17, CEA and AFP between HCC and healthy control group were compared. And the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for IL-17, CEA and AFP in patients with HCC was calculated using the GraphPad Prism 5.0 software. The plasma level of IL-17, CEA and AFP were 2.88 ± 1.75 (ng/L), 2.99 ± 2.12 (μg/L) and 6.91 ± 4.56 (mg/L) in healthy control group and 5.57 ± 1.59 (ng/L), 8.31 ± 5.40 (μg/L) and 190.50 ± 79.08 (mg/L) in HCC group. Plasma level of IL-17, CEA and AFP in HCC group was statistical higher than in healthy control group (all P < 0.05). For plasma IL-17, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 74.36% and 75.61% at the cut-off value of 4.23 (ng/L) with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.86; For plasma CEA, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 69.23% and 70.73% at the cut-off value of 4.14 (μg/L) with the area under the ROC curve of 0.80; For plasma AFP, he diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 100.00% and 65.85% at the cut-off value of 10.25 (mg/L) with the area under the ROC curve of 0.96. Plasma IL-17 was significant elevated in patients with HCC compared to healthy control group which could be a potential biomarker for diagnosis of HCC.