Hepatocellular carcinoma: Review of disease and tumor biomarkers

Table 1 Comparison of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry

Variable	NMR	MS
Sensitivity	Lower than MS (nanomolar)	Higher than NMR (picomolar)
Sample degradation	No	Yes
Reproducibility	High	Moderate
Metabolite identification	Well categorized	Labor intensive

NMR: Nuclear magnetic resonance; MS: Mass spectrometry.

Table 2 Diagnostic performance of serum markers of hepatocellular carcinoma

Serum marker	Sensitivity	Specificity
AFP	39%-65%	79%-94%
AFP-L3	75%-97%	90%-92%
DCP	48%-62%	81%-98%
AFU	82%	71%-85%
AFP-L3 + DCP	85%	98%

AFP: Alpha fetoprotein; AFP-L3: Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive AFP; DCP: Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin; AFU: Alpha-l-fucosidase.