Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. It commonly develops on cirrhotic livers, and surveillance programs have therefore been suggested to identify early HCC, at a stage when it remains suitable for surgical therapy and has a better clinical outcome. The biomarkers alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-L3, arginase and endostatin can be measured in the routine clinical setting, it may be useful or useless for hepatocellular carcinoma. Aim: The current study introduced a new serum tumor biomarker levels in HCC detection and investigate their benefit as predictors and follow-up of liver cancer. Methods: This study was conducted on a total number of 110 participants admitted to Hepatology and Gastroenterology Department in NHTMRI (National Hepatology & Tropical Medicine Research Institute). The participants of this study were divided into three groups as follows; Group I: 30 cases LCD, Group II 30 patients LC group and Group III as HCC individuals, in addition to 20 healthy subjects (as controls). Results: The obtained increasing specificity of AFP, the AFP-L3 can be used as a measure of cancerous changes in the HCC. The high specificity of arginase (85%) and endostatin (84%) can reflect the usefulness of these markers in HCC follow-up especially endostatin which has a marked sensitivity (90%) in HCC cases under this study. Conclusion: These results demonstrate the beneficial role of Endostatin as it is considered superior to other markers such as AFP, (AFP)-L3, arginase in the diagnosis of HCC.
Keywords:Alpha-fetoprotein-L3, Arginase, Endostatin and Hepatocellular carcinoma.