Serial changes in serum alpha-fetoprotein prior to detection of hepatocellular carcinoma in liver cirrhosis.

In 49 liver cirrhosis patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in which the hepatocellular carcinoma nodule was smaller than 30 mm in size, serial changes in serum alpha-fetoprotein levels prior to the detection of the hepatocellular carcinoma were studied retrospectively, and compared with those of 70 cirrhotic patients with no hepatocellular carcinoma. The changes in alpha-fetoprotein levels were classified into the 4 types normal, low plateau, high plateau and spiky type. The spiky type (spiky elevation during a short period) was more frequently noted in the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma than in those with liver cirrhosis. In a prospective analysis of 39 patients with liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma was detected in 6, and was also more frequently noted in the spiky type than the other types. Moreover, in the hepatocellular carcinoma patients with the spiky type of alpha-fetoprotein, hepatocellular carcinoma was suspected, on the basis of the tumor doubling time, to exist at the time of the first elevation of alpha-fetoprotein. These results suggest that the liver cirrhotics with the spiky type of alpha-fetoprotein may be considered to be a high-risk group of hepatocellular carcinoma.