Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical contribution of protein induced by vitamin K absence (PIVKA-II) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnostics and compare it with alpha-foetoprotein (AFP), a routinely used tumour marker.
Materials and methods: A total of 332 participants were enrolled in this study: 64 with HCC, 48 with liver metastases of colorectal cancer origin, 42 with liver cirrhosis and 178 healthy individuals. Serum levels of PIVKA-II were measured using the chemiluminescent assay of the Architect 1000i System (Abbott, USA) and AFP levels using the chemiluminescent assay by DxI 800 (Beckman Coulter, USA).
Results: PIVKA-II achieved better clinical sensitivity than AFP and the difference in this sensitivity was statistically significant. PIVKA-II achieved the best sensitivity (96.9%) in distinguishing between the HCC and control groups with the proposed cut-off value of 60 mAU/ml.
Conclusion: Our recommendation is for addition of PIVKA-II to the routine panel of HCC tumour markers.
Keywords: AFP; PIVKA-II; biomarkers; hepatocellular carcinoma; predictive.
Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.