AIM: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a global health problem because of its increasing prevalence worldwide and its poor prognosis. In Egypt HCC incidence has increased sharply and nearly doubled over the last decade. The outcome of HCC depends mainly on its early diagnosis; therefore, new and specific markers for HCC are critically needed. Osteopontin (OPN) is a glycoprotein that overexpressed in HCC, and known to be an independent predictor of poor prognosis. The aim was to assess the value of OPN in Egyptian patients with HCC. METHODS: This study included 40 patients with HCC, 20 patients with liver cirrhosis and 20 healthy controls. For all groups, clinical data and image findings were studied; serum alpha-fetoprotein & OPN levels were detected by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit. Tumor characteristics were assessed including size, number and site. Tumor staging was done using Okuda, CLIP, VISUM and Tokyo staging systems. RESULTS: Serum OPN was significantly higher in HCC patients compared to cirrhotic patients and controls. The sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis of HCC were 92.5% and 85% respectively at cutoff of 239 ng/mL with 91.1% accuracy. OPN has a positive significant correlation with tumor number (p = 0.036), CLIP (p = 0.02), Tokyo (P = 0.03), and VISUM (P = 0.01) staging systems. CONCLUSION: OPN could be a useful diagnostic & prognostic marker for detection of HCC.

Background & Aims: The main cause of chronic hepatitis is Hepatitis B virus (HBV). The progression and development of hepatitis B related diseases are included liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Human leukocyte antigen-(HLA) DQ polymorphism has been observed in other recent studies dealing with the association between HBV and liver disease. Our study of Egyptian population was introduced to assess the strong association between HLA-DQ polymorphism and HBV infection in addition to the progression of HCC. The aim of this work was to estimate HLA-DQ gene polymorphisms in HBV and HCC. Methods: HLA-DQ genotype polymorphism assayed by using the ABI Taq Man allelic discrimination assay in different groups under this study. According to the relevant HLA Class II SNP literature, one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) was selected as candidate sites; it is an HLA-DQ, which showed minor allele frequency AA, GA, and GG. Results: We performed haplotype analysis to all subjects, the most frequent AA haplotype in HCC cases (18%) in comparison with HBV and healthy individuals (3%). The haplotype GA was more frequent in HCC group and slightly frequency in LC related to HBV only cases in comparison with the control group. In contrast, the GG haplotype recorded less frequently in HCC individuals, but the HBV and LC groups showed more frequency in comparison with HCC group. There is a correlation between AFP serum elevated levels of most frequency in GA and AA polymorphism for HCC cases. Conclusion: We found AA and GA haplotype were significantly most frequent in HCC. Our findings HLA-DQ AA and GG polymorphism might serve as a novel potential predictive marker for HCC and may function in tumorigenesis of HBV.