Elshemey Wael M, Desouky Omar S, Mohammed Mohammed S, Elsayed Anwar A, el-Houseini Motawa E
Biophysics Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Egypt.
Phys Med Biol. 2003 Sep 7;48(17):N239-46. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/48/17/401.
The diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) usually occurs at late stages in the disease when there are few effective treatment options. The measurement of the concentration of tumour markers in the serum of patients is a complementary tool frequently used for the interpretation of diagnostic imaging results. It is also used as a prognostic tool for the detection of cancer. Unfortunately, the sensitivity of tumour markers is still low and many times it yields normal results for cirrhotic and HCC patients. In the current work, the detection possibility of the structural changes in serum proteins accompanying cirrhosis and HCC is investigated using a low-angle x-ray scattering (LAXS) technique. The results show that there are significant differences in the LAXS profiles of cirrhosis and HCC lyophilized serum samples compared to normal. The changes in shape, total counts and position of the first scattering peak at 4.8 degrees, which was previously reported to be sensitive to the structural changes in protein, showed the most characteristic deviations from normal serum. The present results are promising and would offer a potentially helpful complementary tool for monitoring cirrhosis and HCC.
肝细胞癌（HCC）的诊断通常在疾病晚期进行，此时有效的治疗选择很少。检测患者血清中肿瘤标志物的浓度是一种常用的辅助工具，用于解读诊断成像结果。它也被用作检测癌症的预后工具。不幸的是，肿瘤标志物的敏感性仍然较低，很多时候肝硬化和HCC患者的检测结果仍为正常。在当前的研究中，使用低角度X射线散射（LAXS）技术研究了肝硬化和HCC患者血清蛋白结构变化的检测可能性。结果表明，与正常血清相比，肝硬化和HCC冻干血清样本的LAXS图谱存在显著差异。先前报道对蛋白质结构变化敏感的4.8度处第一个散射峰的形状、总计数和位置变化显示出与正常血清最显著的偏差。目前的结果很有前景，将为监测肝硬化和HCC提供一种潜在有用的辅助工具。
