Hepatology and Liver Transplant Unit, Hospital Universitario Austral, School of Medicine, Austral University, Buenos Aires B1629AHJ, Argentina.
Latin American Liver Research Educational and Awareness Network (LALREAN), Buenos Aires B1629AHJ, Argentina.
Cells. 2020 Jun 1;9(6):1370. doi: 10.3390/cells9061370.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the main cancer-related causes of death worldwide. Thus, there is a constant search for improvement in screening, diagnosis, and treatment strategies to improve the prognosis of this malignancy. The identification of useful biomarkers for surveillance and early HCC diagnosis is still deficient, with available serum biomarkers showing low sensitivity and heterogeneous specificity despite different cut-off points, even when assessed longitudinally, or with a combination of serum biomarkers. In contrast, HCC biomarkers used for prognostic (when associated with clinical outcomes) or predictive purposes (when associated with treatment response) may have an increased clinical role in the near future. Furthermore, some serum biomarkers are already implicated as a treatment selection tool, whether to provide access to certain therapies or to assess clinical benefit after treatment. In the present review we will discuss the clinical utility and foreseen future of HCC biomarkers implicated in surveillance, diagnosis, prognosis, and post-treatment assessment.
肝细胞癌 (HCC) 是全球主要的癌症相关死亡原因之一。因此，人们一直在不断寻求改进筛查、诊断和治疗策略，以改善这种恶性肿瘤的预后。尽管不同的截断值，甚至在进行纵向评估或联合使用血清生物标志物时，用于监测和早期 HCC 诊断的有用生物标志物的鉴定仍然不足，现有的血清生物标志物显示出低灵敏度和异质性特异性。相比之下，用于预后（与临床结果相关）或预测目的（与治疗反应相关）的 HCC 生物标志物在不久的将来可能具有更大的临床作用。此外，一些血清生物标志物已经被认为是一种治疗选择工具，无论是为了获得某些治疗方法，还是为了评估治疗后的临床获益。在本综述中，我们将讨论在监测、诊断、预后和治疗后评估中涉及的 HCC 生物标志物的临床实用性和预期的未来。
