Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 15, 2026
Non-Invasive PET/MR Imaging in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Published on: August 31, 2022
Enhanced detection of hepatocellular carcinoma
Motawa E el-Houseini1, Mohammed S Mohammed, Wael M Elshemey
1Biophysics Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Egypt.
Background:
Tumor markers in the early detection of tumors are promising tools that could improve the control and treatment of tumors. While alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a commonly used tumor marker in the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its sensitivity and specificity are insufficient to detect HCC in all patient samples.
Methods:
We compared AFP with serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF and VEGF-A), insulin-like growth factor-2 (IGF-II), and the activity of the lysosomal enzyme alpha-L-fucosidase (AFU) in the sensitivity of detection of HCC and cirrhosis in Egyptian patients.
Results:
The sensitivity of tumor detection using AFP was 68.2%. This level of detection was increased to 88.6% when AFP was evaluated in conjunction with AFU. The combined use of AFP and VEGF increased the sensitivity of detection to 95.5% in patients with HCC. The combination of the three markers yielded 100% detection sensitivity. VEGF-A showed a low specificity (20%), and IGF-II showed extremely low sensitivity (4.5%).
Conclusions:
We suggest that AFU or VEGF or both be measured with AFP to improve the detection sensitivity of HCC.
