Acetylcarnitine is a candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma
Menée initialement à partir d'échantillons sanguins et tumoraux prélevés sur 50 patients atteints d'un carcinome hépatocellulaire, puis validée sur 58 échantillons sériques prélevés sur 18 patients atteints d'un carcinome hépatocellulaire, 20 patients atteints d'une cirrhose du foie et 20 témoins, cette étude suggère l'intérêt de mesurer le niveau sérique de l'acétylcarnitine pour le diagnostic et le pronostic de la maladie
The identification of serum biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been elusive to date. In this study, we took a mass spectroscopic approach to characterize metabolic features of the liver in HCC patients to discover more sensitive and specific biomarkers for diagnosis and progression. Global metabolic profiling of 50 pairs of matched liver tissue samples from HCC patients was performed. A series of 62 metabolites were found to be altered significantly in liver tumors, however, levels of acetylcarnitine correlated most strongly with tumor grade and could discriminate between HCC tumors and matched normal tissues. Post-hoc analysis to evaluate serum diagnosis and progression potential further confirmed the diagnostic capability of serum acetylcarnitine. Lastly, an external validation in an independent batch of 58 serum samples (18 HCC patients, 20 liver cirrhosis patients, and 20 healthy individuals) verified that serum acetylecarnitine was a meaningful biomarker reflecting HCC diagnosis and progression. These findings present a strong new candidate biomarker for HCC with potentially significant diagnostic and prognostic capabilities.
Cancer Research , article en libre accès, 2016