Clinical significance of serum clusterin as a biomarker for evaluating diagnosis and metastasis potential of viral-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an increasing problem in Egypt. Clusterin has been reported to play a significant role in tumorigenesis. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate clusterin as a marker for evaluating diagnosis and metastasis potential of viral-related HCC. Methods: Eighty patients with HCC, 30 patients with liver cirrhosis, 30 patients with chronic hepatitis and 30 healthy controls were enrolled in study. Estimation of serum clusterin was done by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Serum clusterin levels were significantly increased in patients with HCC. Serum clusterin was highly increased in patients with poorly differentiated tumor, capsular infiltration, portal vein invasion and lymph node infiltration. Receiver operator characteristic curve showed that clusterin had a greater area under curve value (0.95) than that of alpha fetoprotein (0.85). At cutoff value of 128 mu g/mL, serum clusterin yielded (90%) sensitivity and (87%) specificity for predicting HCC. Conclusion: We concluded that clusterin is a promising useful marker for diagnosis of HCC. Clusterin might be deemed as a useful marker for predicting the progression and metastasis potential of HCC. (C) 2012 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.