ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of serum FER, AFP and AFP-L3 alone or in combination for diagnosis of primary hepatic carcinoma( PHC).Methods This was a case-control study. Serum FER, AFP and AFP-L3 were determined in 212 patients with PHC ( StageⅠ45 cases, StageⅡ78 cases, StageⅢ81 cases, StageⅣ8 cases) , 127 patients with cirrhosis, 101 patients with chronic hepatitis and 98 controls in the Beijing Youan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University from January 2014 to December 2014.Levels of FER, AFP and AFP-L3 were measured by chemiluminescence, while serum samples were pre-treatment with affinity adsorption before AFP-L3 detection.FER, AFP and AFP-L3 levels were analyzed using the nonparametric Wilcoxon test among all groups.Diagnostic performance were analyzed among the groups with the three biomarkers independently and combined.Logistic regression, plotted ROC curve and calculated the area under ROC curve ( AUC) were applied to assess the diagnostic value of each index.Results Serum concentration of FER in PHC, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis groups and healthy controls were 308.45 ( 148.98 -662.80 ) , 151.70 ( 51.44 -507.40 ) , 298.20 ( 157.30 -701.80 ) , 113.50( 54.98-221.38) μg/L, respectively.The concentration of AFP were 48.50(5.25 -748.40), 3.91(1.80-17.53), 4.76 (2.29-30.56), 2.57 (0.93-3.68) μg/L in each group.The serum levels of AFP-L3 in each group were 4.75(0.61-127.95), 0.61 (0.61-2.50), 0.61 (0.61-2.85), 0.61 (0.61-0.61) μg/L.The concentration of FER, AFP and AFP-L3 differs statistically in PHC, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis group and healthy controls (χ2 =67.66,146.31,119.02,P<0.001).The content of serum FER, AFP and AFP-L3 increased gradually as the stage level aggravating ( StageⅠ-Ⅳ) , there was significant differences among groups (χ2 =21.63,22.68,21.98, P<0.001) .When using one serum marker, FER had the highest sensitivity (75.00%) , while AFP-L3 had the highest specificity (82.52%). While using two serum markers, FER/AFP had the highest sensitivity (89.15%) , FER+AFP-L3 and AFP+AFP-L3 had a higher specificity (86.20%).The combined detection of FER/AFP/AFP-L3 improved the sensitivity of the test to 89.15%, while FER+AFP+AFP-L3 had a specificity of 86.50%.The AUC of combination of FER, AFP and AFP-L3 was 0.803 ±0.019 (95% CI:0.765-0.841), which was higher than the AUC of either FER(0.748 ±0.022,95% CI:0.705-0.790, Z=4.67,P<0.001) and AFP-L3 (0.726 ±0.024,95% CI: 0.679 -0.772, Z=3.64,P<0.001).However, there was no significant difference in AUC between AFP alone ( 0.776 ±0.021, 95% CI: 0.735 -0.818 ) and the combined detection ( Z=1.34, P=0.18 ) .Conclusions FER was a potential marker for PHC diagnosis.The combination of FER, AFP and AFP-L3 has higher value of clinical applications than one of them independently.