Diagnostic value of serum glypican-3 alone and in combination with AFP as an aid in the diagnosis of liver cancer

Background: Recently, a series of studies have been published to examine the possible diagnostic and prognostic values of glypican-3 (GPC3) in liver cancer with conflicting results observed. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the values of preoperative serum GPC3 alone and in combination with AFP for the diagnosis of liver cancer. Methods: An enzyme-linked immunoassay was used to quantify serum GPC3 in hepatocellular carcinoma group (HCC, n = 210), intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma group (ICC, n = 36), combined hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma group (cHCC-CC, n = 8), metastatic liver cancer group (MLC, n = 10) and normal controls (NC, n = 134). Results: The area under the curve (AUC) of GPC3 for HCC versus NC was 0.879, with a sensitivity of 79.52% at an optimal cutoff value of 0.0414 ng/mL; when GPC3 was combined with AFP, the AUC and sensitivity were increased to 0.925 and 88.10%, respectively. In addition, 43 of 68 AFP-negative patients had elevated GPC3 levels. Furthermore, the positive rate of GPC3 was significantly higher than the that of AFP for HCC in early stage. Conclusions: Serum GPC3 was superior to AFP for the diagnosis of early-stage HCC, and may be complementary to AFP for distinguishing HCC from NC.