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Review
. 2020 Jun 1;9(6):1370.
doi: 10.3390/cells9061370.

Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment Response Assessment

Federico Piñero  1   2 , Melisa Dirchwolf  3 , Mário G Pessôa  4
Affiliations
Review

Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment Response Assessment

Federico Piñero et al. Cells. .

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the main cancer-related causes of death worldwide. Thus, there is a constant search for improvement in screening, diagnosis, and treatment strategies to improve the prognosis of this malignancy. The identification of useful biomarkers for surveillance and early HCC diagnosis is still deficient, with available serum biomarkers showing low sensitivity and heterogeneous specificity despite different cut-off points, even when assessed longitudinally, or with a combination of serum biomarkers. In contrast, HCC biomarkers used for prognostic (when associated with clinical outcomes) or predictive purposes (when associated with treatment response) may have an increased clinical role in the near future. Furthermore, some serum biomarkers are already implicated as a treatment selection tool, whether to provide access to certain therapies or to assess clinical benefit after treatment. In the present review we will discuss the clinical utility and foreseen future of HCC biomarkers implicated in surveillance, diagnosis, prognosis, and post-treatment assessment.

Keywords: biological; liver cancer; markers.

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Conflict of interest statement

F Piñero has received Advisory Board and speaker honoraria and he is consultant for RAFFO, BAYER Cono Sur and BAYER Andina; research grants from the Argentinean National Institute of Cancer (INC ID-190), Argentinean National Ministry of Science and Technology Development (PICT 2017, FONCYT) and from the Latin American Liver Research Educational and Awareness Network (LALREAN).

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sensitivities and specificities according to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) cut-offs values for early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis. 1 Adapted from [34].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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