Aided Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Using Serum Fucosylated Haptoglobin Ratios

Aberrant fucosylation plays a functional role in regulating ontogeny and celluar differentiation and are differentially regulated in cancerous condition, which could provide hallmarks for cancer diagnostics and surveillance. We previously developed a magnetic beads-based lectin ELISA system to measure fucosylated haptoglobin (Hp), which has been reported to be a cancer biomarker through a series of glycoproteomic analysis. In this study, serum fucosylated Hp ratios were measured using our ELISA kit in a separate cohort of 260 patients independently, including 130 healthy controls and 130 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fucosylated Hp /Hp ratio (levels of fucosylated Hp /levels of protein Hp) and ELISA Index (OD value of fucosylated Hp /OD value of protein Hp) were calculated respectively to reflect Hp fucosylation level on its protein level. Our data showed that fucosylated Hp /Hp ratio (AUC= 0.8449) and ELISA Index (AUC= 0.8581) had better performance in distinguishing HCC from controls, which indicated that fucosylated Hp ratios could improve the diagnosis and prediction of HCC even with a low level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Additionally, the combination analysis of AFP and fucosylated Hp ratios increased the AUC value for HCC diagnosis.