Mohamed GA, Nashaat EH, Fawzy HM, ElGhandour AM. Assessment of fibroblast growth factor 19 as a non-invasive serum marker for hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Hepatol 2022; 14(3): 623-633 [PMID: 35582295 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i3.623]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ghada Abdelrahman Mohamed, MD, Lecturer, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, El Khalifa El-Maamon St., Abbassia, Cairo 11591, Egypt. ghadaabdelrahman@med.asu.edu.eg
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2022; 14(3): 623-633 Published online Mar 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i3.623
Assessment of fibroblast growth factor 19 as a non-invasive serum marker for hepatocellular carcinoma
Ghada Abdelrahman Mohamed, Ehab Hasan Nashaat, Hadeer Mohamed Fawzy, Ahmed Mohamed ElGhandour
Ghada Abdelrahman Mohamed, Ehab Hasan Nashaat, Hadeer Mohamed Fawzy, Ahmed Mohamed ElGhandour, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11591, Egypt
Author contributions: Mohamed GA, Nashaat EH, and ElGhandour AM designed the study; Fawzy HM participated in the acquisition of the data; Mohamed GA, Nashaat EH, Fawzy HM, and ElGhandour AM participated in the analysis and interpretation of the data; Mohamed GA, Nashaat EH, Fawzy HM, and ElGhandour AM revised the article critically for important intellectual content; Mohamed GA wrote the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from every participant before the enrollment into the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: The statistical code and dataset are available from the corresponding author at ghadaabdelrahman@med.asu.edu.eg. The participants gave informed consent for the data sharing.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Corresponding author: Ghada Abdelrahman Mohamed, MD, Lecturer, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, El Khalifa El-Maamon St., Abbassia, Cairo 11591, Egypt. ghadaabdelrahman@med.asu.edu.eg
Received: October 19, 2021 Peer-review started: October 19, 2021 First decision: December 3, 2021 Revised: December 19, 2022 Accepted: February 20, 2022 Article in press: February 20, 2022 Published online: March 27, 2022 Processing time: 156 Days and 13.6 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF-19) is one of the founding members of the endocrine FGF subfamily. Recently, it has been the subject of much interest owing to its role in various physiological processes affecting glucose and lipid metabolism and bile acid secretion as well as cell proliferation, differentiation, and motility. Additionally, FGF-19 secretion in an autocrine style has reportedly contributed to cancer progression in various types of malignancies including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Research motivation
Tumour markers for HCC with a high sensitivity and specificity are necessary.
Research objectives
We aimed to estimate the serum FGF-19 concentrations in HCC cases and assess the diagnostic performance of FGF-19 for the detection of HCC.
Research methods
We recruited 90 adult participants and divided them into three equal groups: Healthy controls, cirrhosis patients, and HCC patients. Serum FGF-19 concentrations were measured using the Human FGF-19 ELISA kit.
Research results
We detected a high statistically significant difference in the FGF-19 levels between the three groups, with the highest level occurring in the HCC group, followed by the cirrhosis and control groups (236.44 ± 40.94 vs 125.63 ± 31.54 vs 69.60 ± 20.90 pg/mL, respectively, P ≤ 0.001). For the detection of HCC, ROC curve analysis showed that FGF-19 produced a better diagnostic performance than alpha fetoprotein with an AUC of 0.98 vs 0.78.
Research conclusions
FGF-19 may be a possible novel non-invasive marker for HCC.
Research perspectives
FGF-19 could serve as a predictor of prognosis and a marker for follow-up after HCC treatment. Furthermore, the FGF-19 pathway may be a therapeutic target for the management of HCC.
