Serum P53 Abs in HCC patients with viral hepatitis - type C

P53 gene mutations have a higher malignant potential and often leads to the production of p53 Abs. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical implications of p53Abs in HCV-related HCC and its diagnostic capacity as a new biomarker in HCC.

83 patients with HCV-chronic liver disease (25 with LC and 58 with HCC) were enrolled in this study. Ten healthy individuals (HI) served as control group. The studied group was subjected to clinical examination, imaging radiology, laboratory investigation and liver biopsy. Serum p53 Abs was assessed by (ELISA).

Serum p53 Abs in HCC (0.5567±0.227) was significantly elevated (p<0.0001) than LC (0.252±0.0099) and HI (0.214±0.068) (p=0.001). Serum P53 Abs was significantly (p=0.01) increased with the progression of child score but there was no significant difference with regard to age, sex, tumor size or serum liver profile. However, serum p53 Abs showed no significant positive correlation with AFP in HCV-related HCC (r=0.09, p value= 0.6) but serum p53 Abs in combination with AFP showed higher diagnostic sensitivity (82.2%) of HCC than either alone.

P53 Abs could be regarded as a specific biomarker for cancer process and its use in combination with AFP may increase the diagnostic sensitivity of HCC.