Background: Primary liver cancer (PLC) is one of the most common malignant tumors world-wide but its pathogenesis is unclear. We suggest that steroid hormones may offer diagnostic information for PLC.
Methods: Using liquid chromatography (UPLC) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), we quantified 7 endogenous steroids in 66 PLC human serum samples, 59 liver cirrhosis (LC) samples, and 65 healthy volunteers (HV). Data were assessed chemometrically and with Mann-Whitney U tests and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA).
Results: For PLC patients, androgens were low and estrogen was high. PLS-DA analysis discriminated between healthy subjects and cancer patients using (estrone+estradiol)/testosterone ratios. Moreover, cirrhosis patients were also distinguished with receiver operating characteristic curves indicating the specificity and sensitivity of our current approach.
Conclusions: Steroid hormone profiling by UPLC-MS/MS may be promising for early diagnosis of PLC but investigations with more patients and steroids are required to confirm the utility of these biomarkers for clinical applications.
Keywords: Biomarkers; Human serum; Primary liver cancer; Steroid hormones; UPLC-MS/MS.
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