Serum levels of des-γ-carboxy prothrombin measured using the revised enzyme immunoassay kit with increased sensitivity in relation to clinicopathologic features of solitary hepatocellular carcinoma

✍ Scribed by Hiroaki Okuda; Toshimi Nakanishi; Kazuko Takatsu; Akiko Saito; Naoaki Hayashi; Ken Takasaki; Kazuyuki Takenami; Masakazu Yamamoto; Masayuki Nakano

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 74 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(20000201)88:3<544::aid-cncr8>3.0.co;2-f

✦ Synopsis

BACKGROUND.

Des-␥-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) is an established marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the conventional enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit lacks adequate sensitivity. Thus, a revised EIA kit with increased sensitivity has been developed. In this kit, the sensitivity has increased while high specificity to HCC has been maintained. The authors have already reported the clinical usefulness of this revised EIA kit. In this study, they examined the serum levels of DCP measured by this revised EIA kit in relation to the clinicopathologic features of solitary HCC.

METHODS.

Fifty-six patients with solitary HCC who underwent hepatectomy were studied. The relation between the greatest dimension and the histologic differentiation of HCC was investigated in these 56 patients, as were the serum levels of DCP measured by the revised EIA kit (Sensitive DCP), ␣-fetoprotein (AFP), and DCP measured by the conventional EIA kit (DCP). The cutoff value for Sensitive DCP was set at 40 mAU/mL, and the values for AFP and DCP were 20 ng/mL and 100 mAU/mL (0.1 AU/mL), respectively.