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World J Hepatol. Jun 18, 2015; 7(11): 1581-1585
Published online Jun 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i11.1581
Autoantibodies against tumor-associated antigens for detection of hepatocellular carcinoma
Yu Hong, Jian Huang
Yu Hong, Jian Huang, Liver Research Center, Experimental Center, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China
Author contributions: Hong Y wrote the manuscript; Huang J modified the manuscript.
Supported by A grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81071973; A grant from the Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security of Beijing, China (Key project, 2010).
Conflict-of-interest: We declare that we have no conflict of interests, and we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Jian Huang, Professor, Liver Research Center, Experimental Center, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, 95 Yong An Road, Beijing 100050, China. huangj1966@hotmail.com
Telephone: +86-10-63139310
Received: December 10, 2014
Peer-review started: December 13, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: January 30, 2015
Accepted: April 16, 2015
Article in press: April 20, 2015
Published online: June 18, 2015
Processing time: 187 Days and 20.6 Hours
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common tumors worldwide. The survival rate after the onset of symptoms is generally less than one year for the late presentation of HCC, and reliable tools for early diagnosis are lacking. Therefore, novel biomarkers for the early detection of HCC are urgently required. Recent studies show that the abnormal release of proteins by tumor cells can elicit humoral immune responses to self-antigens called tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). The corresponding autoantibodies can be detected before the clinical diagnosis of cancer. Therefore, there is growing interest in using serum autoantibodies as cancer biomarkers. In this review, we focus on the advances in research on autoantibodies against TAAs as serum biomarker for detection of HCC, the mechanism of the production of TAAs, and the association of autoantibodies with patients’ clinical characteristics.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Diagnosis; Serological marker; Autoantibody; Tumor associated antigen

Core tip: There is growing interest in using serum autoantibodies as cancer biomarkers. However, the mechanism and clinical association of autoantibodies in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. In this review, we focus on the advances in research on autoantibodies against tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) as serum biomarker for detection of HCC, the mechanism of the production of TAAs, and the association of autoantibodies with patients’ clinical characteristics.