Serum Visfatin and Serum Vaspin in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma on Top of Liver Cirrhosis

Despite improvements in HCC therapy, the prognosis for HCC patients remains poor due to a high incidence of recurrence. Early diagnosis can significantly improve the overall survival of HCC patients. However, currently available diagnostic markers are still inadequate and limited by their low sensitivity and specificity. For instance, the gold standard marker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has a false negative rate up to 40% for early stage of HCC. It is worthy to mention that the level of AFP was reported in a normal range of 25% of patients with advanced HCC. As such, AFP has been excluded from being a marker for the diagnosis of HCC by Practice Guidelines of the American Association for the study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and confirmed by other studies. These discrepancies suggest the need of discovering new reliable diagnostic markers for patients with HCC. An improved understanding of the pathogenesis of HCC development would facilitate the development of more effective outcomes for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC at earlier stages.