Diagnostic Performance of Serum
AKR1B10
in Early‐Stage and
AFP
‐Negative Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Multicentre Study
Zhe Cao, Ming Xie, Xu Ye, Bin Wu, Huiqing Wang, Guodong Chen, Deliang Cao, Boqing Wang, Xi Zeng, Zhiliang Sun ABSTRACT
Objective
Aldo‐keto reductase 1B10 (AKR1B10) is overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to evaluate its diagnostic efficacy for early and alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP)‐negative HCC, and its potential role in assessing radical resection and early recurrence.
Methods
A large‐scale multicentre clinical study enrolled 1 352 subjects from three medical centres, including HCC, benign liver diseases, and non‐hepatocyte cancers. Serum samples were collected for AKR1B10 and AFP testing, and clinical and imaging data were collected for analysis.
Results
Serum AKR1B10 markedly increased in HCC patients to 1419.51 ± 89.09 pg/mL, compared to 177.96 ± 9.78 pg/mL in healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that for HCC diagnosis, AKR1B10 had an Area under the curve (AUC) of 0.866, sensitivity of 73.10%, and specificity of 95.24%, compared to AFP with 0.750, 64.27%, and 82.14%, respectively. In early HCC, AKR1B10 yielded an AUC of 0.800, a sensitivity of 65.8%, and a specificity of 91.67%, better than AFP (0.717, 59.83%, and 88.1%, respectively). AKR1B10 was positive in 69.27% of AFP‐negative HCC cases and showed an AUC of 0.852, a sensitivity of 72.2%, and a specificity of 90.48%. In patients with HCC undergoing curative resection, serum AKR1B10 levels declined to normal within 3–5 days. At 1–3 months after surgery, serum AKR1B10 had a concordance of 94.41% with imaging data, compared to 70.63% for AFP.
Conclusion
AKR1B10 is a useful serum marker for the diagnosis of early and AFP‐negative HCC and shows potential in assessing curative resection and early recurrence.