Clinical performance of α-L-fucosidase for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma

Aim: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of serumAFUfor early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Concentration of AFU and AFP were measured in 512 patients. The performance was compared for AFU and AFP alone or in combination. Results: The area under the curve (AUC) for AFU was 0.68, with a sensitivity of 56.1% and specificity of 69.2% at the cut-off value of 24U/l; whereasthe AUC for AFP was 0.83, with a sensitivity of 58.2% and specificity of 85.2% at cut-off value of 20ng/ml. The AUC of AFU alone or the combination with AFP were lower than that of AFP alone. Conclusion: AFU is a suboptimal biomarker for early detection of HCC.