Clinical significance of fucosylated GP73 in the differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

To investigate the clinical value of fucosylated GP73 (Fuc-GP73) levels for differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma from other liver diseases. Serum specimens were collected from 50 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, 60 patients with other digestive system diseases (ODSD), and 40 normal controls. Lectin affinity chromatography column combining with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using the ELISA index was utilized to measure the level of Fuc-GP73. By receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis its sensitivity and specificity were used to evaluate the diagnostic significance of Fuc-GP73 in hepatocellular carcinoma. The median serum Fuc-GP73 level of hepatocellular carcinoma (20.4 μg/L) was much higher than that of ODSD patients (1.8 μg/L) and the normal controls group (0.3 μg/L), significantly (P <0.01). There was no significant correlation between serum Fuc-GP73 level and sex, age, and tumor size in the hepatocellular carcinoma group (P > 0.05); however, it was related to tumor, node, metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis (P <0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of Fuc-GP73 to detect hepatocellular carcinoma alone was 0.885; with the prespecified specificity of 95%, the sensitivity and the cutoff value were 82% and 3.1 μg/L. In addition, the combined test of Fuc-GP73 with other biomarkers can improve the clinical diagnostic efficiency; the AUC can reach to 0.983; and with the prespecified specificity of 95% its sensitivity increased to 94%. Fuc-GP73 can act as a superior glycobiomarker for the differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma; its combined detection with other biomarkers can improve diagnostic accuracy