Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) also known as malignanthepatoma, accounts for most of the liver cancers. Alpha fetoprotein (AFP) has been undoubtedlywidely used as a marker for the detection and monitoring of HCC. This study aimed to find thecorrelation of serum alpha fetoprotein and tumor size in HCC in the tertiary care hospital. StudyDesign: This cross sectional descriptive study. Setting: Pathology Department of Allama IqbalMedical College, Lahore (AIMC). Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 45HCC patients (13 females and 32 males) came to Jinnah Hospital Lahore. Five ml of venousblood was drawn aseptically from anterior cubital vein of patients and added into plain vial toclot. The samples were centrifuged, to get the plasma separated from blood cells. Serum AFPwas measured by using Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay technique (ELISA). Results:There were 10 (22.2%), 19 (42.2%), 16 (35.6) cases in AFP group 1,2,3 respectively. While10 (22.2%), 13 (28.8%), 22 (48.8%) cases in tumor size groups A,B,C. Group C with largetumor size got 48.8% raised AFP levels as compared to group B (28.8%) and group A (10%).Conclusion: This study shows there is significant correlation between serum AFP and tumorsize in HCC (r=0.668). Serum AFP progressively increases with tumor size especially in largersize. Although AFP have suboptimal sensitivity but it is still proves a beneficial in early diagnosisand screening of HCC, when used in combination of USG/Imaging technique.
Source: The Professional Medical Journal
Language: English
Subfield: Hepatology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2321933209