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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 7, 2015; 21(37): 10573-10583
Published online Oct 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i37.10573
Biomarkers for the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma
Nobuhiro Tsuchiya, Yu Sawada, Itaru Endo, Keigo Saito, Yasushi Uemura, Tetsuya Nakatsura
Nobuhiro Tsuchiya, Yu Sawada, Itaru Endo, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama 236-0027, Japan
Nobuhiro Tsuchiya, Keigo Saito, Yasushi Uemura, Tetsuya Nakatsura, Division of Cancer Immunotherapy, Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center, Kashiwa 277-8577, Japan
Author contributions: Tsuchiya N and Nakatsura T drafted the manuscript; Sawada Y, Endo I, Saito K and Uemura Y revised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tetsuya Nakatsura, MD, PhD, Chief, Division of Cancer Immunotherapy, Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center, 6-5-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa 277-8577, Japan. tnakatsu@east.ncc.go.jp
Telephone: +81-4-71315490 Fax: +81-4-71336606
Received: March 17, 2015
Peer-review started: March 18, 2015
First decision: April 23, 2015
Revised: May 21, 2015
Accepted: August 31, 2015
Article in press: August 31, 2015
Published online: October 7, 2015
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although the prognosis of patients with HCC is generally poor, the 5-year survival rate is > 70% if patients are diagnosed at an early stage. However, early diagnosis of HCC is complicated by the coexistence of inflammation and cirrhosis. Thus, novel biomarkers for the early diagnosis of HCC are required. Currently, the diagnosis of HCC without pathological correlation is achieved by analyzing serum α-fetoprotein levels combined with imaging techniques. Advances in genomics and proteomics platforms and biomarker assay techniques over the last decade have resulted in the identification of numerous novel biomarkers and have improved the diagnosis of HCC. The most promising biomarkers, such as glypican-3, osteopontin, Golgi protein-73 and nucleic acids including microRNAs, are most likely to become clinically validated in the near future. These biomarkers are not only useful for early diagnosis of HCC, but also provide insight into the mechanisms driving oncogenesis. In addition, such molecular insight creates the basis for the development of potentially more effective treatment strategies. In this article, we provide an overview of the biomarkers that are currently used for the early diagnosis of HCC.

Keywords: α-fetoprotein, α-fetoprotein-L3, Biomarker, Des-γ-carboxyprothrombin, Glypican-3, Golgi protein-73, Hepatocellular carcinoma, MicroRNAs, Osteopontin, Squamous cell carcinoma antigen

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The poor prognosis of HCC is due to the fact that diagnosis is often made at a late stage in disease development. Thus, the identification of biomarkers for diagnosis at an early stage may result in significant benefits. An up-to-date review of biomarkers that are currently used for the early diagnosis of HCC is provided in this article.