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. 2023 Dec 17;59(12):2191.
doi: 10.3390/medicina59122191.

Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of IL-10, FABP2 and LPS Levels in HCC Patients

Egidijus Morkunas  1 , Evelina Vaitkeviciute  2 , Greta Varkalaite  2 , Vidas Pilvinis  3 , Jurgita Skieceviciene  2 , Juozas Kupcinskas  1   2
Affiliations

Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of IL-10, FABP2 and LPS Levels in HCC Patients

Egidijus Morkunas et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still lacks valuable diagnostic and prognostic tools. This study aimed to investigate the potential diagnostic and prognostic value of baseline interleukin (IL)-10, fatty acid-binding protein 2 (FABP2) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in patients with HCC. Serum levels of IL-10, FABP2 and LPS in 47 newly diagnosed HCC patients and 50 healthy individuals were estimated and compared. The best cut-off points for baseline IL-10, FABP2 and LPS levels predicting overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Both levels of FABP2 and IL-10 were significantly higher in HCC patients vs. control group (median 2095 vs. 1772 pg/mL, p = 0.026; 9.94 vs. 4.89 pg/mL, p < 0.001) and may serve as potential biomarkers in complex HCC diagnostic tools. The cut-off value of 2479 pg/mL for FABP2 was determined to have the highest sensitivity (66.7%) and specificity (55.6%) to distinguish patients with a median OS longer than 17 months. However, the median OS of patients with high and low levels of FABP2 were not significantly different (p = 0.896). The prognostic value of LPS as well as FABP2 and IL-10 for HCC patients appears to be limited.

Keywords: FABP2; HCC; IL-10; LPS; biomarker; hepatocellular carcinoma; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Workflow of the study. HCC; ELISA—enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; FABP2; IL; LPS.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The ROC curve showing the sensitivity and specificity of various cut-off values of baseline (a) FABP2, (b) IL-10 and (c) LPS levels to distinguish patients with the OS longer than a median OS of 17 months.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Kaplan–Meier curve showing overall survival of patients grouped by baseline FABP2 values according to cut-off of 2479 pg/mL.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The ROC curve showing the sensitivity and specificity of various cut-off values of baseline (a,d,g) FABP2, (b,e,h) IL-10 and (c,f,i) LPS levels to distinguish patients with the OS longer than 1 year (a–c), 2 years (d–f) and 6 months (g–i).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The ROC curve showing the sensitivity and specificity of various cut-off values of baseline (a,d,g) FABP2, (b,e,h) IL-10 and (c,f,i) LPS levels to distinguish patients with the OS longer than 1 year (a–c), 2 years (d–f) and 6 months (g–i).
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