Detection of early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma in asymptomatic HBsAg-seropositive individuals by liquid biopsy

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1819799116
• Publication Date: 2019-03-12T00:18:57Z
• Authors: Chunfeng Qu; Yuting Wang; Pei Wang; Kun Chen; Minjie Wang; Hongmei Zeng; Jianquan Lu; Qianqian Song; Bill H. Diplas; Da Tan; Chunsun Fan; Qigao Guo; Zheng Zhu; Huihui Yin; Liping Jiang; Xixi Chen; Hui Zhao; Huan He; Yong Wang; Guangyu Li; Xinyu Bi; Xinming Zhao; Taoyang Chen; Hongping Tang; Chuanguo Lv; Dongmei Wang; Wanqing Chen; Jianguo Zhou; Hong Zhao; Jianqiang Cai; Xiaoyue Wang; Sizhen Wang; Hai Yan; Yi-Xin Zeng; Webster K. Cavenee; Yuchen Jiao
• Keywords: Liver Cancer

Liquid biopsies, based on cell free DNA (cfDNA) and proteins, have shown the potential to detect early stage cancers of diverse tissue types. However, most these studies were retrospective, using individuals previously diagnosed with cancer as cases healthy controls. Here, we developed a liquid biopsy assay, named hepatocellular carcinoma screen (HCCscreen), identify HCC from surface antigen hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) positive asymptomatic in community population. The training cohort consisted who had liver nodules and/or elevated serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, assay robustly separated those non-HCC sensitivity 85% specificity 93%. We further applied this 331 normal ultrasonography AFP levels. A total 24 identified, clinical follow-up for 6-8 mo confirmed four HCC. No 307 test-negative during same timescale. Thus, showed 100% sensitivity, 94% specificity, 17% predictive value validation cohort. Notably, each was at (<3 cm) when diagnosed. Our study provides evidence that use combined detection cfDNA alterations protein markers is feasible approach populations unknown status.