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    Home > Active Ingredient News > Digestive System Information > Can blood test detect early liver cancer?

    Can blood test detect early liver cancer?

    • Last Update: 2021-10-22
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    ▎Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form of liver cancer, but the survival rate of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma is only 8%.
    It has become one of the leading causes of death of cancer patients worldwide
    .

    This type of cancer is not only difficult to treat, but even more difficult is that they are almost hard to detect at an early stage
    .

    By the time the diagnosis is confirmed, surgery or chemotherapy is basically difficult to come in handy
    .

    Currently, the most widely used marker in hepatocellular carcinoma screening is alpha-fetoprotein
    .

    But in fact, there are many subtypes of hepatocellular carcinoma, and doctors may not be able to detect the existence of hepatocellular carcinoma in time based on a single marker
    .

    At present, we urgently need a diagnostic tool that can distinguish different subtypes of hepatocellular carcinoma, so that the existence of liver cancer can be detected in advance, and appropriate treatments can be used to extend the life of patients
    .

    According to new research by the research team of the Medical University of South Carolina in the United States, the sugar structure is expected to become a future detection marker
    .

    60% of the proteins in our body contain sugar structures, and the reason why they have the potential to be test markers is because the structure similar to N-polysaccharides changes in the cancer environment
    .

    You can think of polysaccharides as clothes you usually wear.
    Under normal circumstances, we will decide whether to wear short-sleeved or cotton-padded jackets based on the temperature of the environment
    .

    But in the tumor environment, the polysaccharides are messed up, and they will be mixed with cotton-padded jackets and short sleeves.
    Scientists can easily distinguish them at this time
    .

    This is what Dr.
    Anand Mehta wants to lock in.
    He wants to distinguish the subtypes of hepatocellular carcinoma based on the sugar structure
    .

    To this end, he and his colleagues used a lipidomics imaging technique to image the sugar structure of different hepatocellular carcinoma samples
    .

    ▲Hepatocellular carcinoma (blue box) and N-polysaccharide structure (picture source: reference [2]) According to the imaging data, the researchers found that some differences in sugar structure can indicate different types of hepatocellular carcinoma
    .

    Compared with normal tissues, the N-glycosylation process of the highly aggressive hepatocellular carcinoma subtype 1 samples has been dysregulated, which also makes its polysaccharide structure chaotic
    .

    Although the study did not establish a one-to-one relationship between polysaccharides and hepatocellular carcinoma, they found some special connections
    .

    For example, a six-carbon sugar called fucose is closely related to hepatocellular carcinoma subtype 1, suggesting that fucose can be a marker for predicting this type of hepatocellular carcinoma
    .

    Image source: 123RF Of course, according to current methods, if you want to use polysaccharides to diagnose liver cancer, you may need to obtain tissue samples from individuals
    .

    The research team is trying to extend the study to blood samples.
    Mehta wants to see if the sugar in the blood can be used to distinguish subtypes of hepatocellular carcinoma
    .

    Changes in blood glucose levels are easier to interpret than tissue samples, so it will be a more convenient and less risky detection method
    .

    "Our goal is to analyze the changes in sugar in blood and cancer tissues," said Dr.
    Mehta.
    "This is also the next research direction that needs to be completed before going to clinical applications
    .

    "Reference: [1]Unique sugar structures could identify early-stage liver cancer.
    Retrieved Sep 22, 2021 from https://medicalxpress.
    com/news/2021-09-unique-sugar-early-stage-liver-cancer.
    html[2]Andrew DelaCourt et al, N-Glycosylation Patterns Correlate with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Genetic Subtypes, Molecular Cancer Research (2021).
    DOI: 10.
    1158/1541-7786.
    MCR-21-0348
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