الفهرس 
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Abstract
The purpose of present study was to provide new insights about the diagnostic value of AFU for rapid, accurate and sensitive detection of HCC and to compare its diagnostic value to alphafetoprotein (AFP).
The study included both animal and human parts:
Part one animal study: included 60 male wistar rats (one group served as control, other 3 groups received diethylnitrosamine (DENA) for 4, 8 and 12 weeks, respectively. DENA-treated groups showed significant histopathological changes in time dependent pattern. DENA-treated groupIV (12 weeks) showed statistically significant variations (p<0.05) in all tested biochemical parameters.
Part two human study: included 120 patients (First group served as control group, other 3 groups with histologically proven HCC divided to mild, advanced and metastatic HCC). Histological and biochemical analysis (AFP, AFU, liver function tests, total antioxidants serum levels) in both healthy and diseased animals/patients were done. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and correlation analysis were conducted. All histologically-proven HCC groups showed a highly statistically significant variations (p<0.01) in all tested biochemical parameters without exception (AFP, AFU, liver function tests and total antioxidents serum levels).
In conclusion: AFU has a higher strength than AFP as an accurate tumor marker for early diagnosis of HCC. AFU showed higher sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy than AFP. It also showed significant correlation coefficients with the classical markers for hepatocellular carcinoma (AFP, ALT and AST) at different disease stages which constitutes a solid panel for early detection of HCC.
Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, tumor marker, Alph –L
fucosidase, alphafetoprotein, diethylnitrosamine, biomarker.