Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Osteopontin-Igm as a Marker for the Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2009; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/172460080902400332

1724-6008

Alessandra Biasiolo, N. Tono, L. Beneduce, Jessica Zuin, Giorgio Fassina, Sabrina Meo, Daniela Paccagnella, Mauro Mazzucco, Fabio Farinati, Anna Giacomin, Veronica Vanin, Maria Teresa Aldinio, Emanuela Miola, Silvio Donà, Claudia Matteucci, R Sorrentino, Guido Rasi, Angelo Gatta, Patrizia Pontisso,

Xenotransplantation and immune response

Introduction Biomarkers for early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detection are still a clinical need. Recent data indicate that cancer-associated antigens lead to the formation of circulating IgM-linked immune complexes as the result of natural IgM production by the innate immune response. The SCCA-IgM immune complex has already been described for primary liver cancer detection. Osteopontin (OPN) is a member of the SIBLING family of proteins recently shown to be related to tumorigenesis, progression and metastasis in various cancer types. Aim To evaluate the serum levels of the OPN-IgM complex in comparison to the SCCA-IgM complex in patients with HCC. Patients A total of 256 patients were analyzed including 151 patients with HCC (M/F 115/36; mean age ± SD: 67 ± 12 years) and 106 patients with cirrhosis (M/F 68/38; mean age ± SD: 62 ± 12 years). HCC, tested before any therapeutic approach, was mainly of viral etiology (58% HCV, 11% HBV), while alcohol abuse (22%) was the main risk factor for the remaining cases. A similar distribution was found in patients with cirrhosis (46% HCV, 15% HBV, 38% alcohol). Methods Serum levels of OPN-IgM were measured using a homemade ELISA assay with a polyclonal anti-human OPN antibody (Biodesign Int, USA). SCCA-IgM was detected in serum using an ELISA assay kit (Hepa-IC, Xeptagen). Results OPN-IgM was positive in 64/151 (42%) patients with HCC and in 45/106 (42%) patients with cirrhosis (specificity 58%), while the reference biomarker SCCA-IgM showed 35% sensitivity (49/139) and 71 % specificity. When patients were stratified on the basis of etiology, the sensitivity values for OPN-IgM and SCCA-IgM were 51% vs 44% in HCV patients, and 36% vs 23% in the other patients, while the specificity was lower for OPN-IgM (55% vs 69% in HCV patients; 62% vs 72% in the other patients). Combination of the two biomarkers resulted in an increase in sensitivity to 63% for viral etiology and to 40% for nonviral etiology. Conclusion Different IgM-linked biomarkers are detectable in primary liver cancer. OPN-IgM and SCCA-IgM showed a similar behavior, while the combination of these biomarkers increased the diagnostic performance for primary liver cancer.