Glypican-3: A Promising Biomarker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Diagnosis

Background Molecular targets are urgently required for the early detection of HCC and the development of novel therapeutic approaches. in HCC patients, GPC3 is overexpressed at both the gene and protein levels, and its expression predicts a poor prognosis. Moreover, GPC3 has been used as a target for molecular imaging and therapeutic intervention in HCC. Aim and objectives to study the role of Glypican 3 levels in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in Egyptian patients and its prognostic role after successful treatment. Subjects and Methods This is a Case control study, was conducted in Internal Medicine department - Ain Shams University Hospitals on 60 patients divided into 2 groups: (Group 1): included 30 patients with liver cirrhosis and HCC on top, (Group 2): included 30 patients with liver cirrhosis and no evidence of HCC. Result There were high significant difference between both groups as regard GPC3. Conclusion Glypican-3 can be a valuable diagnostic marker for HCC diagnosis and prognosis after various treatment modalities and may be complementary to alpha fetoprotein increasing overall sensitivity of HCC detection.