Clinical utility of lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: evaluation in a Thai referral population.

Background And Objective: There is no established clinical role for the lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L3%) in the management of the Thai hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient population. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate clinical utility and performance characteristics of AFP-L3% for the diagnosis of HCC in Thai referral patients.

Material And Method: Sixty-one histologically proven HCC patients and 35 patients with other liver cancers were included for analysis.