Studying the Impact of Golgi Protein 73 Serving as a Candidate Biomarker in Early Diagnosis for Hepatocellular Carcinoma among Saudi Patients

ABSTRACT

Background: Due to the prevalence of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Saudi Arabia, using new markers to give best diagnostic performance than alpha-feto protein (AFP) are important in early diagnosis. The aim of this work was to compare the significance between serum and mRNA Golgi glypican73 (GP-73) as newly identified diagnostic and prognostic markers for HCC among Saudi patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 300 subjects were divided into 250 blood samples where 145 samples from HCC, 105 samples from chronic liver cirrhosis (CLC) and 50 normal controls were investigated for serum GP73 (sGP73) by ELISA. GP-73 mRNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was amplified by RT-PCR. The sensitivity and specificity of both techniques was compared. Results: Serum Golgi glypican 73 was significantly higher in HCC group compared to cirrhotic and normal controls (p<0.001). Sensitivity and specificity were 95% for sGP-73, 100% and 90% for Golgi glypican 73 mRNA. The combination of sensitivity between AFP and sGP73 was 80% and 95% respectively. Conclusion: Both serum Golgi glypican-73 and GP-73Mrna are good diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of HCC in Saudi patients. RT-PCR is more accurate and sensitive (100%) than ELISA (95%) in detecting Golgi glypican 73.