Emerging Proteomic and Glycoproteomic biomarkers for Hepatocellular carcinoma

Early diagnosis and proper therapeutics are the most important factors to increasing the survival rate for liver cancer patients in the current medical treatment. To date, the identification of specific and sensitive serological biomarkers to monitor liver disease progression and/or early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still an unmet medical need. DCP and HGF are promising biomarkers with wide accessibility. Enzymes and isoenzymes such as GGT II, AFU, HCR2 help in early diagnosis and prognosis. Glycoproteomic biomarkers such as AFP and Lens culinaris agglutinin AFP are used in clinical practice with hepatic ecography in screening of cirrhotic patients to discover HCC. GPC3 positive patients show lower survival rate than GPC3 negative patients. Glycomic profiles of haptoglobin and ZAG have provided powerful approach to a better understanding of HCC. OPN is having highest sensitivity and specificity for detecting HCV HCC. Search for new biomarker for HCC is continuous evolving process. This article describes new emerging potentially useful biomarkers.