Page 138 - ebook HCC

PROGRAMME
136 PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTSAND ABSTRACTS GENEVA, SWITZERLAND EASL HCC SUMMIT 137
136
FEBRUARY 13 - 16, 2014

Poster Board Number B30

EVALUATION OF ANNEXIN-II AND FOLLISTATIN NOTES
AS POTENTIAL SERUM MARKERS FOR
HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

Nevine E. Elabd , Amal Fawzy , Sherif Hamdy 3
2
1
1 Clinical and Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine -Cairo University,
3
2 Clinical and Chemical Pathology, National Cancer institute, tropical medicine, faculty of
Medicine -Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Corresponding author’s e-mail: nevineelabd@yahoo.com
Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary cancer of
the liver. It has become the 5 most common malignancy worldwide and the third leading
th
cause of cancer-related death. Surgical resection is the most effective method for curing
this disease, but a large number of cases are not adapted to surgery because of their intra-
hepatic or distant metastases at the time of diagnosis. Therefore, it is important to develop
convenient serological markers for HCC to enable early diagnosis, as well as monitoring of
tumor aggressiveness, treatment responsiveness, recurrence and patient ‘s survival rate.
Annexin A2, (ANXA2) is a calcium-dependent phospholipid-binding protein .It has been
implicated in many functions, for example, exocytosis, endocytosis and immune response.
It may also play key roles in tumorigenesis. Follistatin (FST) is a glycoprotein that could
BASIC POSTER ABSTRACTS shown that follistatin regulates a variety of processes of angiogenesis and apoptosis. BASIC POSTER ABSTRACTS
inhibit the release of follicle-stimulating hormone from pituitary cells. Several reports have

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate serum levels of annexin A2 and follistatin
as diagnostic serological markers for detection of HCC among high-risk patients and
compare them with other known tumor markers

Methodology: The study was conducted on 50 newly diagnosed patients with HCC
presented to the outpatients’ clinic at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Cairo
University. It also included 30 post HCV/HBV patients and 20 volunteering apparently
healthy individuals as controls. A verbal consent was taken from all subjects. Liver
function tests in addition to serum Alpha fetoprotein (AFP), annexin A2 and follistatin were
measured for all subjects by ELISA.
Results: Annexin A2 was higher in the sera of HCC patients compared to hepatitis and
control groups. As for Follistatin, it was higher in the sera of HCC patients compared to
the control group, but when compared between HCC and hepatitis groups, it showed no
significant difference. Combining Annexin-A2 or Follistatin with AFP, markedly increased
the specificity for HCC diagnosis.
Conclusions: Annexin A2 is a promising diagnostic and prognostic marker for HCC
and its combination with AFP markedly increases the specificity (98%) and the positive
predictive value (97.6%). Follistatin could not differentiate between HCC and hepatitis, but
its combination with AFP improved the specificity for HCC diagnosis.
Keyword: Annexin A2, Follistatin, Hepatocellular carcinoma.