Journal of Practical Hepatology ›› 2020, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (5): 719-722.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-5069.2020.05.029

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Serum level of dickopff 1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and its impact on prognosis after TACE treatment

Lu Bin, Cheng Min.   

  1. Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Chaohu Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Chaohu 238000, Anhui Province, China
  • Online:2020-09-10 Published:2020-09-11

Abstract: Objective To investigate serum level of dickopff 1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its impact on prognosis after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment. Methods 90 patients HCC, 90 healthy persons, 86 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and 81 patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis were enrolled in this study from January 2016 to January 2018, and all patients with HCC received TACE and followed-up for 24 months. Serum levels of Dickopff-1 and AFP were measured by ELISA. Serum Dickopff-1 levels in patients with different clinical and pathological characteristics were compared. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was drawn to determine the efficacy of serum Dickopff-1 and AFP in the diagnosis of HCC, and the Kaplan-Meier curve was applied for survival analysis. Results Serum Dickopff-1 and AFP levels in patients with HCC were significantly higher than those in patients with liver cirrhosis or in patients with CHB【(0.8±0.1)ng/ml and (12.3±3.0)ng/ml, P<0.05】 or in healthy persons 【(0.7±0.1)ng/ml and (11.5±2.5)ng/ml, respectively, P<0.05】; serum level of dickopff-1 in patients with HCC reduced after TACE treatment to (1.6±0.6)ng/ml, P<0.05); serum level of dickopff-1 in HCC patients with portal cancer thrombus was higher than that in patients without [(2.9±0.3) ng/ml vs. (2.1±0.5)ng/ml, P<0.05); serum level of dickopff-1 in dead patients was higher than that in survivals [(3.5±0.8) ng/ml vs. (1.2±0.3) ng/ml, P<0.05); the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of serum dickopff-1 or AFP alone in the diagnosis of HCC were 0.860 and 0.618, respectively, which had certain diagnostic value for HCC (Z=6.297, P<0.05) and the combined diagnosis of dickopff-1 and AFP improved the efficacy (AUC=0.892), and the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the diagnosis were all the highest; the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival of patients with high serum dickopff-1 levels was poorer than that in patients with low serum levels (x2=8.418, P<0.05). Conclusion Serum dickopff-1 levels increase in patients with HCC. The higher the levels of serum dickopff-1 in patients with HCC, the worse the prognosis. It might be used as an indicator of the efficacy and prognosis after TACE treatment in patients with HCC.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Dickopff 1, Prognosis