Glypican-3 level assessed by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is inferior to alpha-fetoprotein level for hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis.

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS:

Glypican-3 (GPC3) protein is highly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue. It has been suggested as a diagnostic biomarker, but its inconsistent performance means that it requires further assessment. We therefore investigated the diagnostic value of the plasma GPC3 level compared to the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level as a diagnostic biomarker of HCC.

METHODS:

We enrolled 157 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed HCC and 156 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) as the control group. GPC3 plasma levels were measured using two commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs, named as Assay 1 and 2), and AFP levels were measured using an enzyme-linked chemiluminescent immunoassay. The diagnostic accuracy was analyzed using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve.

RESULTS:

Plasma GPC3 levels in HCC patients were very low (0-3.09 ng/mL) in Assay 1, while only 3 of the 157 patients (1.9%) showed detectable GPC3 levels in Assay 2. The median GPC3 level was not significantly elevated in the HCC group (0.80 ng/mL) compared with the LC group (0.60 ng/mL). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for GPC3 was 0.559 in Assay 1. In contrast, the median AFP level was significantly higher in HCC (27.72 ng/mL) than in LC (4.74 ng/mL), with an AUC of 0.729.

CONCLUSION:

The plasma level of GPC3 is a poor diagnostic marker for HCC, being far inferior to AFP. The development of a consistent detection system for the blood level of GPC3 is warranted.

• Authors: Yejoo Jeon, Eun Sun Jang, Yun Suk Choi, Jin-Wook Kim, Sook-Hyang Jeong
• Journal: Clinical and molecular hepatology (Clin Mol Hepatol) Vol. 22 Issue 3 Pg. 359-365 (Sep 2016) ISSN: 2287-285X [Electronic] Korea (South)
• PMID: 27729630 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers, Tumor
• GPC3 protein, human
• Glypicans
• alpha-Fetoproteins

Topics

• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Area Under Curve
• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• Carcinoma, Hepatocellular (diagnosis, pathology)
• Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
• Female
• Glypicans (blood)
• Humans
• Liver Neoplasms (diagnosis, pathology)
• Male
• Neoplasm Staging
• ROC Curve
• alpha-Fetoproteins (analysis)