Background The sugar-chain structures of circulating alpha-fetoproteinin patients with hepatocellular carcinomas differ from thosein patients with cirrhosis. We studied the reactivity of alpha-fetoproteinwith two lectins, Lens culinaris agglutinin A and erythroagglutinatingphytohemagglutinin, to monitor the evolution of hepatocellularcarcinoma in patients with cirrhosis.
Methods Among 361 patients with cirrhosis caused mainly by chronichepatitis B or hepatitis C virus infection, 33 with base-lineserum alpha-fetoprotein concentrations 30 ng per milliliterwere found to have hepatocellular carcinomas during a mean follow-upof 35 months. The lectin-reactive profiles of the alpha-fetoproteinin the serum of these 33 patients were analyzed and comparedwith those in the serum of 32 patients with cirrhosis who hadincreased base-line serum alpha-fetoprotein concentrations andwere followed for at least 24 months but in whom hepatocellularcarcinoma did not develop.
Results At the time of tumor detection, 24 (73 percent) of the33 patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma hadhigher percentages of L. culinaris agglutinin A-reactive alpha-fetoprotein(alpha-fetoprotein L3), erythroagglutinating phytohemagglutinin-reactivealpha-fetoprotein (alpha-fetoprotein P4+P5), or both than the32 patients with cirrhosis but no hepatocellular carcinoma.Among the 24 patients, one or both of the markers were firstelevated 3 to 18 months before the hepatocellular carcinomawas detected by imaging techniques.
Conclusions Measurements of the alpha-fetoprotein L3 and alpha-fetoproteinP4+P5 fractions of serum alpha-fetoprotein allow the differentiationof hepatocellular carcinoma from cirrhosis in some cases andserve as predictive markers for the development of hepatocellularcarcinoma during the follow-up of patients with cirrhosis.
Source Information
From the First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine (Y.S., K.N., Y.K., M.S., S.N.), and the Health Research Center, Nagasaki University (N.I., T.K.), both in Nagasaki; the Department of Public Health, Okayama University Medical School, Okayama (K.T.); and Sanraku Hospital, Tokyo (Y.E.) -- all in Japan.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Nagataki at the First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852, Japan.
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30 ng per milliliter were found to have hepatocellular carcinomas during a mean follow-up of 35 months. The lectin-reactive profiles of the alpha-fetoprotein in the serum of these 33 patients were analyzed and compared with those in the serum of 32 patients with cirrhosis who had increased base-line serum alpha-fetoprotein concentrations and were followed for at least 24 months but in whom hepatocellular carcinoma did not develop. 
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