Khalil-ur Rehman, Prof Muhammad Samiullah, Sidra Sharif, Saira Farhat.
Hepatocellular carcinoma; correlation of serum alpha fetoprotein and tumor size.
Professional Med J Jan ;23(2):209-12.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) also known as malignant hepatoma, accounts for most of the liver cancers. Alpha fetoprotein (AFP) has been undoubtedly widely used as a marker for the detection and monitoring of HCC. This study aimed to find the correlation of serum alpha fetoprotein and tumor size in HCC in the tertiary care hospital. Study Design: This cross sectional descriptive study. Setting: Pathology Department of Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore (AIMC). Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 45 HCC patients (13 females and 32 males) came to Jinnah Hospital Lahore. Five ml of venous blood was drawn aseptically from anterior cubital vein of patients and added into plain vial to clot. The samples were centrifuged, to get the plasma separated from blood cells. Serum AFP was measured by using Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay technique (ELISA). Results: There were 10 (22.2%), 19 (42.2%), 16 (35.6) cases in AFP group 1,2,3 respectively. While 10 (22.2%), 13 (28.8%), 22 (48.8%) cases in tumor size groups A,B,C. Group C with large tumor size got 48.8% raised AFP levels as compared to group B (28.8%) and group A (10%). Conclusion: This study shows there is significant correlation between serum AFP and tumor size in HCC (r=0.668). Serum AFP progressively increases with tumor size especially in larger size. Although AFP have suboptimal sensitivity but it is still proves a beneficial in early diagnosis and screening of HCC, when used in combination of USG/Imaging technique.

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