Background: Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma using serological markers with better sensitivity and specificity than alpha fetoprotein (AFP) is needed.
Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum sICAM-1, β-catenin, IL-8, proteasome and sTNFR-II in early detection of HCC.
Materials and methods: Serum levels of IL-8, sICAM-1, sTNFR-II, proteasome and β-catenin were measured by ELISA assay in 479 serum samples from 192 patients with HCC, 96 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), 96 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and 95 healthy controls.
Results: Serum levels of proteasome, sICAM-1, β-catenin and αFP were significantly elevated in HCC group compared to other groups (P-value<0.001), where serum level of IL-8 was significantly elevated in the LC and HCC groups compared to CHC and control groups (P-value <0.001), while no significant difference was noticed in patients with HCC and LC (P-value=0.09). Serum level of sTNFR- II was significantly elevated in patients with LC compared to HCC, CHC and control groups (P-value <0.001); also it was significantly higher in HCC compared to CHC and control groups (P-value <0.001). ROC curve analysis of the studied markers between HCC and other groups revealed that the serum level of proteasome had sensitivity of 75.9% and specificity of 73.4% at a cut-off value of 0.32 μg/ml with AUC 0.803 sICAM-1 at cut off value of 778ng/ml, the sensitivity was 75.8% and the specificity was 71.8% with AUC 0.776. β-catenin had sensitivity and specificity of 70% and 68.6% respectively at a cut off value of 8.75ng/ml with an AUC of 0.729. sTNFR-II showed sensitivity of 86.3% and specificity of 51.8% at a cut off value of 6239.5pg/ml with an AUC of 0.722. IL-8 had sensitivity of 70.4% and specificity of 52.3% at a cut off value of 51.5pg/ml with AUC 0.631.
Conclusions: Our data supported the role of proteasome, sICAM-1, sTNFR-II and β-catenin in early detection of HCC. Also, using this panel of serological markers in combination with αFP may offer improved diagnostic performance over αFP alone in the early detection of HCC.