Research advances in metabolic markers for hepatocellular carcinoma / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has high incidence and mortality rates and poor prognosis and greatly threatens human health .Early identification and diagnosis is an important method for reducing the incidence and mortality rates of HCC .The sensitivities and specificities of commonly used serum tumor markers cannot meet the need in clinical practice .Metabolomics focuses on the changes in metabolites produced by organisms, such as lipids, bile acid, and amino acids, which are located at the downstream of systems biology and can directly reflect the biochemical status of tissues .With the help of the techniques including chromatography , mass spectrometry, and magnetic resonance,metabolomics can identify the differences in metabolites in serum , urine, and tissue samples, evaluate their diagnostic values, and help to find potential markers for HCC.In the early screening of tumors, metabolomics has the advantages of easily available specimens ,simple operation, and processing a large number of specimens simultaneously .This article reviews the recent research advances in metabolic markers for HCC with the application of metabolomics.