Level of glypican 3 in primary liver cancer and its clinical significance / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the levels of glypican 3 (GPC3) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in the serum of patients with primary liver cancer and its diagnostic value in liver cancer.Methods:A total of 277 patients with primary liver cancer, 108 patients with gastric cancer, 40 patients with hepatitis alone, 19 patients with hepatitis combined with other cancers other than liver cancer and 54 healthy controls in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital between June 2018 and January 2019 were collected. The serum samples from all patients were taken. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect GPC3 level in all specimens. Electrochemiluminescence was used to detect the level of AFP. The diagnostic value of GPC3 or AFP alone and a combination of both for liver cancer was also compared. The relationship between GPC3 and AFP was also analyzed.Results:The serum GPC3 level [median (interquartile range)] in primary liver cancer, gastric cancer, the hepatitis only, the hepatitis combined with other cancer and healthy control was 0.079 ng/ml (0.198 ng/ml), 0.048 ng/ml (0.044 ng/ml), 0.073 ng/ml (0.053 ng/ml), 0.050 ng/ml (0.018 ng/ml), 0.023 ng/ml (0.011 ng/ml), respectively. The GPC3 level in the primary liver cancer was higher than that in the gastric cancer, hepatitis combined with other cancers other than liver cancer, the healthy controls (all P < 0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference in the level of GPC3 between the primary liver cancer and the hepatitis only ( P = 0.520). The sensitivity and specificity of GPC3 for the diagnosis of primary liver cancer was 69.5% and 94.4%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of AFP for the diagnosis of primary liver cancer was 63.9% and 94.0%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the combined detection of liver cancer was 80.2% and 94.3%, respectively. The ratio of positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio was 38.42, 27.73 and 67.01, respectively in liver cancer diagnosed with GPC3, AFP and both of them. The expression of serum GPC3 was associated with AFP ( r = 0.34, P < 0.01). Conclusions:The detection of GPC3 combined with AFP can increase the detection rate of primary liver cancer, and it has a certain clinical significance in the early screening and diagnosis of primary liver cancer.