الفهرس 
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most frequent primary malignancy of the liver. Early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma remains a key goal in improving the poor prognosis of this form of liver cancer. Identifying hepatocellular carcinoma at an early stage is often associated with having better treatment options for patients. AFP and ultrasonography play a limited role in screening of HCC. Some candidate biomarkers can be used in diagnosis of HCC including C-reactive protien (CRP). Radiofrequency is minimally invasive new technique of treatment of small HCC under radiological guidance. Radiofrequency is superior to ethanol injection in treatment of small HCC with few complications. Our aim was to identify the role of CRP in early diagnosis of HCC among HCV patients and its prognostic role in monitoring treatment response of HCC.
We recruited 60 consecutive patients 44(73.3%) were males and 16(26.7%) were females, with mean age (34-65) 51.6±6.1 with three different groups: one consisted of 50 healthy subjects as a control group 28 (56%) were males and 22 (44%) were females, mean age (40-58) 49.9±4.1 years. Another group consisted of 30 CHC patients without HCC 20 (66.7%) were male and 10 (33.3%) were female, with mean age(45-62) 52.8±5.3 years. And the other consisted of 30 LC patients without HCC16(53.3%) were males and 14 (46.7%) were females, with mean age (44-58)51.4±4.3 years. Venous blood samples were taken from all four groups to assess complete blood picture, liver function test, serum alpha-fetoprotein and serum CRP
Our results showed that patients of HCC had higher levels of AFP and CRP compared to control groups (p <0.001). After radiofrequency treatment for HCC patients there was significant decrease in CRP levels than its levels before treatment (0.9±0.23vs 1.6±0.3, p< 0.001).
Our study showed that serum CRP at cut-off value of 1.3 mg/dl level was significantly elevated in patients with early and advanced HCC(1.6±0.3), but were rarely detectable in patients with non-malignant chronic liver disease(0.29±0.1) and healthy controls(0.16±0.07) with p value (<0.001 for all groups ).
We also found that serum CRP can diagnose small HCC with better sensitivity compared to AFP (85.5% and 78.6%, respectively) , thus improve the outcome of these patients.