Serum Talin-1 is a Potential Novel Biomarker for Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Egyptian Patients

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer mortality worldwide. The outcome ofHCC depends mainly on its early diagnosis. To date, the performance of traditional biomarkers is unsatisfactory.Talins were firstly identified as cytoplasmic protein partners of integrins but Talin-1 appears to play a crucial rolein cancer formation and progression. Our study was conducted to assess the diagnostic value of serum Talin-1(TLN1) compared to the most feasible traditional biomarker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for the diagnosis of HCC.
Methods: TLN1 was detected using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in serum samples from 120Egyptian subjects including 40 with HCC, 40 with liver cirrhosis (LC) and 40 healthy controls (HC).
Results:ROC curve analysis was used to create a predictive model for TLN1 relative to AFP in HCC diagnosis. Serumlevels of TLN1 in hepatocellular carcinoma patients were significantly higher compared to the other groups(p<0.0001). The diagnostic accuracy of TLN1 was higher than that of AFP regarding sensitivity, specificity,positive predictive value and negative predictive value in diagnosis of HCC.
Conclusions: The present studyshowed for the first time that Talin-1 (TLN1) is a potential diagnostic marker for HCC, with a higher sensitivityand specificity compared to the traditional biomarker AFP.