Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the fifth most common cancer in men and the seventh in women. This cancer varies widely in incidence throughout the world, with rising incidence in Egypt. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the second most frequent cause of cancer incidence and mortality among men in Egypt. This study aimed to estimate the serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase-9 and its substrate galectin-3 to evaluate their diagnostic accuracy and their relation to hepatocellular carcinoma related clinical features. For this purpose serum levels of these biochemical markers were assessed in 50 hepatocellular carcinoma patients, 30 cirrhotic patients in addition to 10 healthy subjects as a control group using enzyme linked immunesorbent assay. In the present study, circulating level of galectin-3, matrix metalloproteinase-9 increased significantly in hepatocellular carcinoma as compared to control group (P=0.044 and 0.04, respectively). However, no significant difference was observed between cirrhotic and hepatocellular carcinoma patients (P=0.231 and 0.193, respectively). Our study found that hepatocellular carcinoma patients with metastatic spread had a significant elevation of both serum galectin-3 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 levels (P=0.028 and <0.0001, respectively). In addition, galectin-3 level significantly increased in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with poor prognosis suffering from portal vein invasion (P=0.014). Moreover, matrix metalloproteinase-9 increased significantly with increasing stage of Barcelona-Clinic Liver Cancer Group diagnostic and treatment strategy (P=0.01). In Conclusion, matrix metalloproteinase-9 and galectin-3 could be potential prognostic markers. Moreover, they may play a role in hepatocellular carcinoma progression and metastasis. However, they are not useful markers for hepatocellular carcinom.nosis.

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