Internal Medicine Department.
Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailila.
Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021 Jul 1;33(7):1015-1022. doi: 10.1097/MEG.0000000000002074.
Hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is one of the common liver cancers and considered to be the sixth most commonly occurring cancer in the world and the second leading cause of death among cancer patients. More recent studies on HCC showed that the elevated serum endocan level was a predictive factor of recurrence after radiofrequency ablation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the serum endocan level as a prognostic biomarker for recurrence of HCC after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation.
Analytic-prospective study was carried out in Suez Canal University Hospitals. The study was carried out on 80 patients classified into three groups: group 1 (control group) consisted of 20 apparently healthy persons; group 2 consisted of 20 patients with liver cirrhosis; and group 3 consisted of 40 treatment-naive HCC patients who were prepared for radiofrequency ablation. All HCC patients (who were confirmed to have complete ablation after RF) were followed up by using triphasic abdominal CT, serum AFP and serum endocan assessment at 3 and 6 months after radiofrequency ablation.
Our study revealed a high level of serum endocan in the HCC group with a statistically significant difference (<0.001) between the three groups. HCC patients had a higher level of serum endocan (6.2 ± 2.25) followed by an liver cirrhosis group (2.0 ± 1.29) and then the control group (1.0 ± 0.3). The serum endocan level had a positive correlation with recurrence of HCC (P < 0.0001). There was a positive correlation between serum endocan and serum alanine transferase (P = 0.02), and a positive correlation between serum endocan and the number of tumors (P = 0.01).
Serum endocan is considered as a prognostic biomarker for tumor recurrence in HCC patients after radiofrequency ablation.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是常见的肝癌之一，被认为是世界上第六种最常见的癌症，也是癌症患者死亡的第二大主要原因。最近对 HCC 的研究表明，血清内皮素水平升高是射频消融后复发的预测因素。本研究旨在评估血清内皮素水平作为经皮射频消融治疗后 HCC 复发的预后生物标志物。
在苏伊士运河大学医院进行了分析性前瞻性研究。该研究共纳入 80 例患者，分为三组：第 1 组（对照组）由 20 名明显健康的人组成；第 2 组由 20 名肝硬化患者组成；第 3 组由 40 名未经治疗的 HCC 患者组成，这些患者准备接受射频消融治疗。所有 HCC 患者（经 RF 证实完全消融后）均通过使用三期腹部 CT、血清 AFP 和血清内皮素评估在射频消融后 3 和 6 个月进行随访。
我们的研究表明 HCC 组血清内皮素水平较高，三组之间差异具有统计学意义（<0.001）。HCC 患者的血清内皮素水平较高（6.2±2.25），其次是肝硬化组（2.0±1.29），然后是对照组（1.0±0.3）。血清内皮素水平与 HCC 复发呈正相关（P<0.0001）。血清内皮素与血清丙氨酸转氨酶呈正相关（P=0.02），与肿瘤数量呈正相关（P=0.01）。
血清内皮素被认为是射频消融治疗后 HCC 患者肿瘤复发的预后生物标志物。
