ABSTRACT
Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is one of the malignant tumors with the highest cause of death and increasing incidence worldwide.Accurate diagnosis in early stage is vital for the treatment of patients.Presently,routine screening strategies including ?-fetoprotein(AFP)and ultrasound every 6 months have been recommended for early detection in patients with liver cirrhosis to detect HCC at earlier stages.However,the sensitivity and specificity of AFP are far from satisfaction.With the development of recently techniques such as proteomics,it is possible for new HCC-specific markers being available in the near future.Golgi Protein 73(GP73)is most likely to be a promising serum marker.In a few available literatures,GP73 has sensitivity and specificity of 69% and 90%.And fucose-studded GP73 has sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 100%.Apart from GP73,lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive AFP,des-gamma carboxyprothrombin,?-L-fucosidase,glypican-3,hepatocyte growth factor,transforming growth factor-?1,vascular endothelial growth factor,and mucin 1 have been proposed as markers for HCC detection.Clinical trials are undergoing to estimate the value of the above markers,and may change the status in quo ofthe diagnosis of HCC.We have started a multi-centeral trial to investigate GP73 in HBV and HBV related HCC patients with positive preliminary results.