الفهرس 
Hepatocellular CarcinomaOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults, and is the most common cause of death in people with cirrhosis. It occurs in the setting of chronic liver inflammation, and is most closely linked to chronic viral hepatitis infection (hepatitis B or C) or exposure to toxins such as alcohol or aflatoxin. HCC, like any other cancer, develops when there is a mutation to the cellular machinery that causes the cell to replicate at a higher rate and/or results in the cell avoiding apoptosis.
Although they can be small and slow growing, HCC tumors can be only successfully treated by aggressive surgery. Patients often lose the window for surgical resection due to the lack of effective tools for early diagnosis which results in very low 5-year survival rates. Therefore, to improve the prognosis of HCC, it is important and critical to develop specific and sensitive diagnostic biomarkers for HCC.
Alpha fetoprotein is the most frequently used serological marker. However, its sensitivity ranges from 25% for tumors smaller than 3 cm to 50% for lesions larger than 3 cm in diameter. It was also regarded as neither being sensitive nor specific for use as a diagnostic tool in the guideline published by European Association for the Study of the Liver in the year of 2012.
Investigators have focused on Golgi protein 73 (GP73) as non-invasive, available and unexpensive marker for the diagnosis of HCC.
Most of the studies suggest that GP73 can improve the diagnostic rate for liver cancer and its sensitivity and specificity are higher than that of AFP, a traditional hepatoma serum marker.
This study aimed to evaluate the value of serum Golgi protein 73 as a biomarker for HCC comparing its sensitivity and specificity with serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP).
The present study was conducted on ninty subjects: 30 patients with HCV- related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 30 patients with liver cirrhosis on top of chronic HCV and 30 age and gender matched apparently healthy individuals as the control group. The patients were selected from Hepatology Department, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University.