Noninvasive identification of molecular biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma in HCV-Egyptian patients.

Background: This study was performed to investigate the expression of different biomarkers in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and its connection with detective biomarkers. To achieve this objective, seventy subjects were examined in this study, sub-grouped to forty HCC patients and thirty HCV-affected patients with matched thirty healthy individuals. The study involved several groups of participants who were matched based on their age and gender.

Methods: The expression pattern of biomarkers was monitored by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Finally, we utilized a ROC curve to investigate the predictive accurateness of those distinct biomarkers as well as a traditional tumor marker, AFP, in detecting HCC cases.

Results: The baseline biomarker expression levels were markedly greater in HCC patients than in those affected by HCV or healthy subjects. We stated that the sensitivity and the specificity of the different biomarkers alone did not improve than that of AFP alone. When comparing AFP with different biomarkers, the diagnostic validity improves only when combining with CK-1.

Conclusions: Overall, our results indicate that CK-1 mRNA expression could help as a noninvasive tumor biomarker for HCC prognosis and diagnosis when combining with AFP.