Expression And Clinical Significance Of Plasma Spc25 Protein In Patients With Hepatic Carcinoma

BackgroundHepatic carcinoma,which threatened seriously to human health and life,was one of the most common malignancy and had worst survival rate worldwide.At present,hepatic carcinoma was mainly diagnosed by image examinations,like US,CT and MRI,along with serum AFP level.Image examinations depended mostly on operators' experience and was difficult to distinguish malignant tumors from benign ones.AFP was a primary biomarker of hepatic carcinoma,but its sensitivity was only 60% and specificity 90%.The sensitivity was as low as 25% when diagnosing small liver cancers.And AFP levels rose even in some benign diseases.Therefore,the research for novel biomarkers has an important clinical significance to improve the early diagnosis of liver cancers.Previous researchs had discovered liver cancer stem cell surface markers,like ALDH?CD133?CD13?CD90?CD44?CD24?OV6?EpCAM.However,their values were undefined in diagnosing liver cancer.Bai used oligonucleotide microarrays consisting of 19378 known genes to detect HCC associated genes,suggesting that Spc25 was highly expressed.Nevertheless,the role of Spc25 in hepatocarcinogenesis and expression level in liver cancer was still unknown.ObjectiveTo detect plasma levels of Spc25 protein in patients with hepatic carcinoma,liver cirrhosis and normal volunteers,compare their difference.To explore its diagnostic value by the ROC curves.Methods34 patients diagnosed with hepatic carcinoma,28 with liver cirrhosis and 25 healthy volunteers were enrolled.Their blood samples were collected to measure the Spc25 protein contents in plasma by ELISA method.The correlation between hepatic carcinoma and Spc25 protein was analyzed.And the value of Spc 25 protein on the process of liver cancer diagnosis was assessed by ROC(receiver operating characteristic)curve.ResultsPatients with hepatic carcinoma((106.66�64.38)ng/ml)expressed significantly higher Spc25 protein levels in plasma than those with liver cirrhosis((36.97�34.21)ng/ml)and healthy volunteers((26.40 � 25.60)ng/ml).The protein contents were significantly correlated with distant metastasis and TNM stage,and there were no significant differences in the Spc25 levels in different ages,sex,cancer diameter,hepatic virus infection and portal vein invasion to vessel in cancer group.The AUCs of Spc25 protein in diagnosing hepatic carcinomas and small liver cancers were 0.830 and 0.818,not significantly different from AFP's 0.836 and 0.732.The diagnostic sensitivity of Spc25 protein was 82.4% at hepatic carcinoma,and the specificity was 75.7%,not significantly different from AFP's 73.5% and 73.5%.The diagnostic sensitivity of Spc25 protein was 80.0% at small liver cancer,and the specificity was 57.1%,not significantly different from AFP's 66.7% and 50%.Plasma Spc25 protein concentrations were not significantly different between AFP-negative hepatic carcinoma patients and AFP-positive hepatic carcinoma patients.The sensitivity and specificity of Spc25 protein in detecting AFP-negative hepatic carcinoma was 77.8% and 43.8%,respectively.The AUC of combined detection of Spc25 protein and AFP was significantly bigger than that of AFP alone when diagnosing small hepatic carcinoma patients.Meanwhile,the sensitivity increased from 60% to 93.3%,and specificity from 81.1% to 85.7%.ConclusionPlasma Spc25 protein level can be used in the diagnosis of hepatic carcinoma and assessment of metastasis risk.And it will play an auxiliary role in diagnosing AFP-negative liver cancer.Combined detection of Spc25 and AFP makes it easier and more accurate to reveal the small hepatic carcinoma.Spc25 protein is a potential serological marker of hepatic carcinoma.