1992 Volume 25 Issue 9 Pages 2308-2313
Correlation between serum levels of AFP or PIVKA-II and the prognostic factors were evaluated in 48 resected hepatocellular carcinoma. Positive rate was 68.8% in AFP, 58.3% in PIVKA-II and 85.4% in both combination. The AFP level was correlated with none of the pathological factors. But in cases of PTVKA-II, the higher was it level, the higher was the incidence of intrahepatic metastasis, the more advanced the stage, the higher the rate of recurrence and the poorer the prognosis. In the patients of positive tumor marker at the first diagnosis, the rate of positive tumor marker at recurrence again was 45% in AFP and 38% in PIVKA-II. And in the patients of negative tumor marker at first diagnosis, the rate of positive tumor marker at recurrence was 13% in AFP and 0% in PIVKA-I. Therefore both tumor markers are necessary for diagnosis of HCC and monitoring after hepatoctomy. Especially, PIVKA-II was useful for evaluation of the stage and the patients with high levels of PTVKA-II were thought to be advanced HCC.
