Diagnostic value of alpha-fetoprotein for hepatocellular carcinoma

hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) variously occupies the fifth or sixth position as the most frequent neoplasia worldwide. the present work used alpha-fetoprotein (afp) determinations on the ultra-micro analytical system (suma？) as a tumoral marker in 189 cirrhotic patients evaluated at the center for medical and surgical research between january 1999 and september 2005. the principal factors associated to increases in afp were hcc and viral cirrhosis. in all, 22 patients (11.64%) suffered from hcc, with viral cirrhosis caused mainly by hepatitis c virus infections as the most important etiological factor. afp as a tumoral marker displayed a sensitivity of 68.18% and a specificity of 92.17%, which increased to 86.36 and 100% respectively when combined with abdominal sonography. it is concluded that afp is valuable for the diagnosis of hcc.