الفهرس 
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Abstract
The glycosylation of proteins is changed in tumor cells during the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Such alterations in the structure of glycoproteins and other glycoconjugates on the surfaces of cancer cells are important in the phenomenon of metastasis. Therefore, the diagnostic accuracy of some glycoproteins (α-fetoprotein and vitronectin), some of their degrading enzymes (hyaluronidase and β-glucuronidase) and some of their degradation products (hyaluronic acid, sialic acid and glucuronic acid) was assessed as biochemical markers of HCC in 90 HCC patients, 45 cirrhotic patients in addition to 45 healthy subjects as a control group. In the present study, circulating level of vitronectin was decreased significantly in both cirrhosis and HCC, without significant difference observed between cirrhotic and HCC patients. Serum hyaluroinc acid, sialic acid and glucuronic acid were significantly increased in patients with cirrhosis and HCC when compared to control group, also a significant increase was observed in serum level of these acids in HCC group compared to cirrhotic group. Serum β-glucuronidase was increased significantly in HCC group in comparison with control group, while serum hyaluronidase activity was decreased significantly in HCC group when compared to control group. In conclusion, serum vitronectin level reflects the degree of hepatic dysfunction in cirrhosis and HCC, but it is not useful as a tumour marker in screening for HCC patients, since it is not able to differentiate HCC patients from cirrhotic patients. Serum levels of hyaluronic acid, sialic acid and glucuronic acid could be used in diagnosis of HCC. In addition, hyaluronic acid could be used to indicate the severity of liver damage. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the biological and clinicopathological significance of estimating lysosomal enzymes in patients with HCC.