Usefulness of examination of some tumor markers in diagnostics of liver cancer

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Hepatogastroenterology. 2006 Mar-Apr.

Usefulness of examination of some tumor markers in

diagnostics of liver cancer.

Snarska J, Szajda SD, Puchalski Z, Szmitkowski M, Chabielska E, Kaminski F, Zwierz P, Zwierz K.

Department of General Surgery and Endocrinology, Bialystok, Poland.

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.

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