Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2021; 13(11): 1847-1849
Published online Nov 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1847
Hepatocellular carcinoma biomarkers, an imminent need
S Pilar Zamora-León
S Pilar Zamora-León, Department of Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca 3460000, Chile
Author contributions: Zamora-León SP wrote the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares having no conflict of interest related to this letter.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: S Pilar Zamora-León, MSc, PhD, Academic Research, Assistant Professor, Department of Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Católica del Maule, Avenida San Miguel 3605, Talca 3460000, Chile. pzamora@ucm.cl
Received: May 25, 2021
Peer-review started: May 25, 2021
First decision: July 4, 2021
Revised: July 5, 2021
Accepted: September 19, 2021
Article in press: September 19, 2021
Published online: November 15, 2021
Processing time: 170 Days and 12.5 Hours
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common malignant neoplasm of the liver and one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. The identification of novel, highly specific and more sensitive biomarkers for HCC is crucial because existing ones are deficient and non-confirmatory without histological biopsy or imaging techniques.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Biomarker; Blood; Urine; Feces; Gut microbiota

Core Tip: The identification of specific, sensitive and validated biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is complex because of the variability in genetic profiles, but their requirement is urgent to achieve earlier detection of HCC. Body fluids and feces for biomarker detection constitute feasible and low cost screening tools for early diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of HCC.