Diagnostic value of 5 serum biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma with different epidemiological backgrounds: A large-scale, retrospective study

Abstract

Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a lethal global disease that requires an accurate diagnosis. We assessed the potential of 5 serum biomarkers (AFP, AFU, GGT-II, GPC3, and HGF) in the diagnosis of HCC.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we measured the serum levels of each biomarker using ELISAs in 921 participants, including 298 patients with HCC, 154 patients with chronic hepatitis (CH), 122 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), and 347 healthy controls from 3 hospitals. Patients negative for hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis C antibody (called "NBNC-HCC") and patients positive for the above indices (called "HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC") were enrolled. The selected diagnostic model was constructed using a training cohort (n = 468), and a validation cohort (n = 453) was used to validate our results. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy.

Results: The α-L-fucosidase (AFU)/α-fetoprotein (AFP) combination was best able to distinguish NBNC-HCC [area under the curve: 0.986 (95% confidence interval: 0.958-0.997), sensitivity: 92.6%, specificity: 98.9%] from healthy controls in the test cohort. For screening populations at risk of developing HCC (CH and LC), the AFP/AFU combination improved the diagnostic specificity for early-stage HCC [area under the curve: 0.776 (0.712-0.831), sensitivity: 52.5%, specificity: 91.6% in the test group]. In all-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC, AFU was also the best candidate biomarker combined with AFP [area under the curve: 0.835 (0.784-0.877), sensitivity 69.1%, specificity: 87.4% in the test group]. All results were verified in the validation group.

Conclusions: The AFP/AFU combination could be used to identify NBNC-HCC from healthy controls and hepatitis-related HCC from at-risk patients.

Keywords: AFP; AFU; Hepatocellular carcinoma; biomarker; serum.

Figure 1

The median plasma levels of AFP (A), AFU (B), GPC3 (C), GGT-II (D), and HGF (E) in the test cohort and AFP (F) and AFU (G) in the validation cohort. HC, healthy controls; CH, chronic hepatitis; LC, liver cirrhosis; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; P > 0.05 means no significance (NS).

Figure 2

The receiver operating characteristic curve of AFP (A), AFU (B), GPC3 (C), GGT-II (D), HGF (E), AFP + AFU + GGT-II + GPC3 + HGF (F), AFP + AFU + GPC3 + HGF (G), AFP + AFU + HGF (H), and AFP + AFU (I) in the detection of the NBNC-HCC test group. The sensitivity and specificity represented by the red dots are shown in detail (lower). (A). AFP sensitivity: 59.3% and specificity: 98.9%; (B). AFU sensitivity: 85.2% and specificity: 98.9%; (C). GPC3 sensitivity: 100.0% and specificity: 72.6%; (D). GGT-II sensitivity: 92.6% and specificity: 58.3%; (E). HGF sensitivity: 51.9% and specificity: 88.6%; (F). AFP + AFU + GPC3 + GGT-II + HGF sensitivity: 92.6% and specificity: 98.9%; (G). AFP + AFU + GPC3 + HGF sensitivity: 92.6% and specificity: 99.4%; (H). AFP + AFU + HGF sensitivity: 92.6% and specificity: 99.4%; (I). AFP + AFU sensitivity: 92.6% and specificity: 98.9%.

Figure 3

Diagnostic outcomes and nomograms for the combination of serum AFP and AFU in the diagnosis of NBNC-HCC. (A). Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) for AFU, AFP, or both for all patients with NBNC-HCC vs. HC in the test cohort. (B). ROC curves for AFU, AFP, or both for all patients with NBNC-HCC vs. HC in the validation cohort. (C). Nomogram of the combined AFP/AFU in diagnosing NBNC-HCC.

Figure 4

The receiver operating characteristic curves of AFP (A), AFU (B), GPC3 (C), GGT-II (D), and HGF (E), AFP + AFU + HGF (F), AFP + AFU (G), AFP + HGF (H), AFU + HGF (I) in the detection of all-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC of the test group. The sensitivity and specificity represented by the red dots are shown in detail (lower). (A). AFP sensitivity: 52.8% and specificity: 93.7%; (B). AFU sensitivity: 71.5% and specificity: 67.1%; (C). GPC3 sensitivity: 91.1% and specificity: 25.9%; (D). GGT-II sensitivity: 73.2% and specificity: 38.5%; (E). HGF sensitivity: 61.8% and specificity: 75.5%; (F). AFP + AFU + HGF sensitivity: 65.9% and specificity: 89.5%; (G). AFP + AFU sensitivity: 69.1% and specificity: 87.4%; (H). AFP + HGF sensitivity: 74.8% and specificity: 79.0%; (I). AFU + HGF sensitivity: 63.4% and specificity: 76.9%.

Figure 5

The receiver operating characteristic curves of AFP (A), AFU (B), GPC3 (C), GGT-II (D), and HGF (E), AFP + AFU + HGF (F), AFP + AFU (G), AFP + HGF (H), and AFU + HGF (I) in the detection of early-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC of the test group. The sensitivity and specificity represented by the red dots are shown in detail (lower). (A). AFP sensitivity: 44.3% and specificity: 93.7%; (B). AFU sensitivity: 63.9% and specificity: 67.1%; (C). GPC3 sensitivity: 86.9% and specificity: 28.0%; (D). GGT-II sensitivity: 96.7% and specificity: 11.9%; (E). HGF sensitivity: 50.8% and specificity: 75.5%; (F). AFP + AFU + HGF sensitivity: 52.5% and specificity: 90.2%; (G). AFP + AFU sensitivity: 52.5% and specificity: 91.6%; (H). AFP + HGF sensitivity: 50.8% and specificity: 90.9%; (I). AFU + HGF sensitivity: 34.4% and specificity: 93.0%.

Figure 6

Diagnostic outcomes and nomogram for the combination of serum AFP and AFU of all-stage and early stage hepatitis-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). (A). Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) for AFU, AFP, or both for all patients with all-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC vs. CH and LC in the test cohort. (B). ROC curves for AFU, AFP, or both for all patients with all-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC vs. CH and LC in the validation cohort. (C). ROC curves for AFU, AFP, or both for all patients with early-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC vs. CH and LC in the test cohort. (D). ROC curves for AFU, AFP, or both for all patients with early-stage HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC vs. CH and LC in the validation cohort. (E). Nomogram of the combined AFP/AFU in diagnosing HBV-HCC and HCV-HCC.