الفهرس 
H EPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA
Therapeutic and biotechnological applications of prolidaseOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and the most common primary malignant tumor of the liver. It is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in the world. It occurs most commonly on top of a cirrhotic liver which in Egypt is prevalence is due to chronic HCV infection.
When patients with obvious clinical symptoms come to the hospital for treatment, the HCC has already reached the advanced stages and is usually large in size. Given the subsequent rapid growth and vascular invasion, the prognosis then is very poor.
Diagnosis of HCC at earlier stages, thus improves patient outcomes. Currently, the most commonly used methods for screening and diagnosing HCC are ultrasound imaging and serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) concentration measurements, but the diagnostic value of AFP is recently challenged due to its low sensitivity and specificity.
Prolidase is an important enzyme that cleaves the bonds of dipeptides containing proline (X-pro), and plays a vital role in collagen turnover, matrix remodeling and cell growth. Metastatic tumor cell produce enhanced amount of proteases that enable them to penetrate basement membrane and extracellular matrix. Therefore tumor progression might depend on the breakdown of collagen and other extracellular matrix proteins
The aim of this study is to assess the possible diagnostic role of serum prolidase compared to alpha feto protein which is the slandered marker used for diagnosis of HCC.
The study was conducted upon 90 subjects who were divided into three groups: group I included 40 patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, group II included 40 patients with HCV related liver cirrhosis without HCC, group III had 10 healthy subjects as controls
In this study, the serum levels of serum prolidase were highest in patients of group I with HCC compared to those with liver cirrhosis and the control groups.