[Tumor markers of hepatocellular carcinoma]

There are three tumor markers of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L 3), and protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II). AFP is low in specificity but is not correlated with PIVKA-II and is important for HCC screening and decision making as to treatment effectiveness. AFP-L3 is high in HCC specificity, and after treatment it is used for malignancy when AFP-L3 is positive. Specificity in PIVKA-II is higher than that of AFP. And PIVKA-II positive means possibly the highest risk of future portal venous invasion. These three markers complement each other, but since these are not measured simultaneously upon insurance, it is necessary to measure them independently and inspect the imaging modalities regularly when HCC screening.