Application and progress of the detection technologies in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a very high incidence and fatality rate, and in most cases, it is already at an advanced stage when diagnosed. Therefore, early prevention and detection of HCC are two of the most effective strategies. However, the methods recom-mended in the practice guidelines for the detection of HCC cannot guarantee high sensitivity and specificity except for the liver biopsy, which is known as the gold standard. In this re-view, we divided the detection of HCC into pre-treatment diagnosis and post-treatment moni-toring, and found that in addition to the traditional imaging detection and liver biopsy, alpha fetoprotein (AFP), lens culinaris-agglutinin-reactive fraction of AFP (AFP-L3), protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) and other biomarkers are excellent biomarkers for HCC, especially when they are combined together. Most notably, the emerging liquid biopsy shows great promise in detecting HCC. In addition, lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) and other relevant biomarkers may become promising biomarkers for HCC post-treatment monitoring. Through the detailed introduction of the diagnostic technol-ogy of HCC, we can have a detailed understanding of its development process and then obtain some enlightenment from the diagnosis, to improve the diagnostic rate of HCC and reduce its mortality. 2022 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high incidence and fatality rate, often diagnosed at an advanced stage. Early prevention and detection of HCC are crucial strategies. Traditional methods for HCC detection, apart from liver biopsy, lack high sensitivity and specificity. This review discusses the use of alpha fetoprotein (AFP), lens culinaris-agglutinin-reactive fraction of AFP (AFP-L3), protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II), and other biomarkers as reliable tools, especially when used in combination. Liquid biopsy and certain biomarkers like lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) show promise for post-treatment monitoring. Understanding the diagnostic technology of HCC is important for improving diagnosis and reducing mortality.