ArticleBritish journal of cancer2021
α-Fetoprotein mRNA in situ hybridisation is a highly specific marker of hepatocellular carcinoma: a multi-centre study.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deciphering Lipid Metabolic Landscape of Sorafenib-Treated Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Mass Spectrometry Imaging and Transcriptomics.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Exposure to low levels of hexavalent chromium in drinking water alters diet-induced steatotic liver disease in male rats.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2025Article
- SNRPB/CCNB1 axis promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression and cisplatin resistance through enhancing lipid metabolism reprogramming.Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR · 2025Article
- HnRNPR-mediated UPF3B mRNA splicing drives hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis.Journal of advanced research · 2025Article
- Single-cell tumor heterogeneity landscape of hepatocellular carcinoma: unraveling the pro-metastatic subtype and its interaction loop with fibroblasts.Molecular cancer · 2024Article
- mJournal of hepatocellular carcinoma · 2024Article
- Article
- Biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: From Origin to Clinical Diagnosis.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- European Society of Toxicologic Pathology (Pathology 2.0 Molecular Pathology Special Interest Group): Review of In Situ Hybridization Techniques for Drug Research and Development.Toxicologic pathology · 2023Review
- Recent advances of three-dimensional bioprinting technology in hepato-pancreato-biliary cancer models.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Review
- Structure based innovative approach to analyze aptaprobe-GPC3 complexes in hepatocellular carcinoma.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2022Article
- Large-Scale Tissue Microarray Evaluation Corroborates High Specificity of High-Level Arginase-1 Immunostaining for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPathologic diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can be challenging in differentiating from benign and non-hepatocytic malignancy lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential utility of α-fetoprotein (AFP) mRNA RNAscope, a sensitive and specific method, in the diagnosis of HCC.
methodsThree independent retrospective cohorts containing 2216 patients with HCC, benign liver lesions, and non-hepatocytic tumours were examined. AFP was detected using ELISA, IHC (Immunohistochemistry), and RNAscope. Glypican3 (GPC3), hepatocyte paraffin-1 (HepPar-1), and arginase-1 (Arg-1) proteins were detected using IHC.
resultsAFP RNAscope improved the HCC detection sensitivity by 24.7-32.7% compared with IHC. In two surgical cohorts, a panel of AFP RNAscope and GPC3 provided the best diagnostic value in differentiating HCC from benign hepatocytic lesions (AUC = 0.905 and 0.811), and a panel including AFP RNAscope, GPC3, HepPar-1, and Arg-1 yielded the best AUC (0.971 and 0.977) when distinguishing HCC from non-hepatocytic malignancies. The results from the liver biopsy cohort were similar, and additional application of AFP RNAscope improved the sensitivity by 18% when distinguishing HCC from benign hepatocytic lesions.
conclusionsAFP mRNA detected by RNAscope is highly specific for hepatocytic malignancy and may serve as a novel diagnostic biomarker for HCC.
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