Studying the Impact of Golgi Protein 73 Serving as a Candidate Biomarker in Early Diagnosis for Hepatocellular Carcinoma among Saudi Patients

BACKGROUND: Due to the prevalence of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Saudi Arabia, using new markers to give best diagnostic performance than alpha-feto protein (AFP) are important in early diagnosis. The aim of this work was to compare the significance between serum and mRNA Golgi glypican73 (GP-73) as newly identified diagnostic and prognostic markers for HCC among Saudi patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 subjects were divided into: 250 blood samples where 145 samples from HCC, 105 samples from chronic liver cirrhosis (CLC) and 50 normal controls were investigated for serum GP73 (sGP73) by ELISA. GP-73 mRNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was amplified by RT-PCR. The sensitivity and specificity of both techniques was compared. RESULTS: Serum Golgi glypican 73 was significantly higher in HCC group compared to cirrhotic and normal controls (p<0.001). Sensitivity and specificity were 95% for sGP-73, 100% and 90% for Golgi glypican 73 mRNA. The combination of sensitivity between AFP and sGP73 was 80% and 95% respectively. CONCLUSION: Both serum Golgi glypican-73 and GP-73Mrna are good diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of HCC in Saudi patients. RT-PCR is more accurate and sensitive (100%) than ELISA (95%) in detecting Golgi glypican 73.