Identification of Biomarkers Associated With Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma by SELDI

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been the leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. Though Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and des-γ-carboxy prothrombin(DCP) are used as the tumor markers for diagnosis of HCCs. Thus, these two markers are not good enough for the early detection of small HCCs. To improve the survival, further investigations of the early diagnostic markers are still needed. SELDI is a proteomic profiling techniques in biomarker discovery. Its approach has been successfully used to identify biomarkers of various cancers, such as prostate cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer. In this current project we will apply the SELDI technique to identify the HCC biomarkers. Sera samples from the HCC patients and relevant controls will be collected. We hope that we can find the new HCC biomarkers. If biomarkers of HCC are identified, this can be used to clinical application for the possible early detection of HCCs.