Angiopoietin-2 as a diagnostic biomarker for Liver cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Cancers like HCC are hyper-vascular, and Angiogenesis has a big role in their progression. One of the angiogenic factors that may be useful in diagnosing HCC is angiopoietin-2. In our study, our goal was to estimate the serum Angiopoitin-2's diagnostic utility in identifying liver cirrhosis and HCC.Subjects and Methods: This case-control research had been carried out at the Kobri Elkoba Military Medical Complex on 117 Subjects were separated in three groups: 39 patients with hepatocellular cancer, 39 patients with liver cirrhosis who were age- and sex-matched (cirrhosis group), and 39 healthy volunteers (control group). All participants were subjected to standard Laboratory investigations including serum Angiopoiten-2 measurements, together with abdominal ultrasonography, and Triphasic abdominal CT scan for the two patients’ groups.Results: Serum Angiopoiten-2 is negatively correlated with Albumin and positively with INR, and total Bilirubin. Angiopoietin is significantly related to CT detected portal vein thrombosis in HCC patients. At a cutoff of 145 pg/mL, Ang-2 may be able to discriminate between liver cirrhosis and healthy controls with a sensitivity of 59% and specificity of 64.1%, and with 69.2% and a specificity of 64.1% distinguish between HCC and healthy controls. The sensitivity and specificity of Ang2 to distinguish between HCC and liver cirrhosis were 51.3% and 71.8%, respectively, at a cut-off of 165 pg/mL.Conclusion: There is a probability that angiopoietin-2 could be adopted as a biomarker for HCC and liver cirrhosis. A bigger sample size and more time are needed to confirm our findings.