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Diagnostic values of alpha-fetoprotein, dickkopf-1, and osteopontin for hepatocellular carcinoma

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Abstract

The timely diagnosis and effective treatment are essential for improving the survival and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the most widely used biomarker for diagnosis of HCC, but the low sensitivity and specificity limits its clinical application. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic capability of the combination of AFP with two novel potential biomarkers, dickkopf-1 (DKK1) and osteopontin (OPN), for HCC in 390 participants including 89 patients with HCC, 36 patients with liver cirrhosis, 65 patients with chronic hepatitis B, and 200 health controls. We found the combination of all three markers as a panel showed a better diagnostic performance than that of AFP alone, with increased AUC [0.948 (95 % CI 0.921–0.968) vs. 0.831 (95 % CI 0.790–0.867)] and sensitivity (88.76 vs. 71.91 %). Moreover, this combination showed a great improvement in diagnosing early-stage HCC patients. In conclusion, the combined use of AFP, DKK1, and OPN as a biomarker panel could enhance the diagnostic ability for HCC.

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Abbreviations

AFP:

Alpha-fetoprotein

DKK1:

Dickkopf-1

OPN:

Osteopontin

HCC:

Hepatocellular carcinoma

LC:

Liver cirrhosis

CHB:

Chronic hepatitis B

HC:

Health control

ROC:

Curve receiver operating characteristic curve

AUC:

Area under ROC curve

CI:

Confidence interval

PPV:

Positive predictive value

NPV:

Negative predictive value

LR:

Likelihood ratio

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Acknowledgments

We thank Huamao Wang at Raygene Biotechnology Company for technical support. This work was supported by grants from National Key Sci-Tech Special Project of China (2012ZX10002011-004), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81201627 and 81371883), Shanghai Municipal Program of International Cooperation in Science and Technology (12410709800), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20120073110091), Key Basic Research Program of Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology (11JC1412201), the State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes (91-1201, 91-1305), Doctoral Innovation Fund of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (BXJ201a243), and Key Discipline and Specialty Foundation of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.

Conflict of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, No. 138 Yi-Xueyuan Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

      Tianxiang Ge

    2. State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 25/Ln 2200 Xie-Tu Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

      Tianxiang Ge, Qiujin Shen, Ning Wang, Yurong Zhang, Zhouhong Ge, Wei Chu & Wenxin Qin

    3. Medical College of Nantong University, No. 19 Qixiu Road, Nantong, 226001, China

      Xiufang Lv & Fengbo Zhao

    4. Department of Infectious Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No. 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou, 215006, China

      Weifeng Zhao

    5. Department of Liver Surgery, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of Education, Fudan University, No. 180 Fenglin Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

      Jia Fan

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    1. Tianxiang Ge
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    Correspondence to Wenxin Qin.

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    Tianxiang Ge and Qiujin Shen have contributed equally to this work.

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    Ge, T., Shen, Q., Wang, N. et al. Diagnostic values of alpha-fetoprotein, dickkopf-1, and osteopontin for hepatocellular carcinoma. Med Oncol 32, 59 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0367-z

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