Background/aims: Diagnostics of liver cancer is mainly based on imaging methods: which are ultrasound and computer tomography. Determination of tumor markers is an accessory investigation enabling us to detect cancer, to evaluate the effectiveness of its operative and postoperative treatment and to diagnose early cancer relapse or distant metastases. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a basic well-known marker in diagnostics of liver cancer. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer procoagulant (CP) are also important in case of metastases to this organ, especially from the colon. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of AFP, CEA and CP in detection of liver cancer.
Methodology: The material of the study was the blood serum from 25 patients with liver cancer diagnosed histopathologically and 12 healthy individuals as a control group. The concentrations of AFP and CEP were assessed by immunoenzymatic method (MEIA) in the Axsym analyzer of Abbott and expressed in ng/mL. CP activity was determined by coagulation method worked out by Gordon and Benson and expressed as coagulation time in seconds (s).
Results: Based on the results obtained in our study, the concentrations of AFP and CEP were several fold higher in the serum of patients with liver cancer than the relevant values of these markers. CP activity was higher in the serum of patients with liver cancer than the mean values of patients in the control group. The differences found in the study between the groups examined and the control group were statistically significant atp<0.001.
Conclusions: The results confirmed a high diagnostic value of AFP and CEA testing and suggest the possibility of using CP activity to detect liver cancer.