Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer, the third most common cause for cancer death in the world, the major cause of death in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection, and responsible for approximately one million deaths each year. Overwhelming lines of epidemiological evidence have indicated that persistent infection with hepatitis C virus is a major risk for the development of HCC. Because outcomes with HCC are likely to be improved by early detection, better serologic tools for early detection are needed, therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic targets and to identify novel biomarkers for the early detection of HCC before any breakthrough in HCC clinical management can be achieved which drives our thinking towards proteomics analysis for screening of HCC and cirrhotic HCV patients. This study was done to assess the diagnostic value of the protein markers in both cirrhotic patients on top of HCV and in HCC patients on top of HCV in comparison to normal controls by serum analysis for alpha feto protein, Apo A1, ApoA2, IGF1 and IGF1R by westeren blotting technique. It was found that alpha feto protein alone could not be used alone as a screening test while Apo A2 as a serum marker could be used as a non invasive screening test to differntiate a case of HCC from cirrhotic HCV patient. The all four markers were able to discriminate nomal persons from HCC and cirrhotic HCV patients effectively. We concluded that proteomics analysis being non invasive, rapid and sensitive is a novel gate that can serve in early dignosis and screening of HCC and cirrhotic HCV patients

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