Background and study aim : Hepato-cellular carcinoma (HCC) is common all over the world. Most HCC are diagnosed at an advanced stage . We aimed to detect the serum Golgi protein (GP 73) in patients with cirrhosis and HCC as non-invasive marker for diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.
Patients and Methods: This study was conducted on 81 subjects: They were divided into 3 groups : 27 patients with HCC, 27 patients with liver cirrhosis and 27 healthy control  subjects. Serum alphaphetoprotein (AFP) and GP 73 were estimated by ELISA. In addition, GP 73 was remasured after therapy in  patients with HCC  who were treated by percutaneous ethanol injection.
Results: GP 73 was elevated in patients with HCC and liver cirrhosis ; serum level was high in HCC patients (p<0.01) when compared with the other studied groups. GP 73 had sensitivity of 81.4% and specificity of 100% at a cut-off value  4.12 ng/ml with area under the receiver operator characteristics (AUC) of 0.964 when compared with AFP that showed a sensitivity 77.7% , specificity 85.1% at a cut-off value >200 and (AUC) 0.774. when AFP was combined with GP73 for the diagnosis of HCC, sensitivity and specificity were increased to 87.6% and 100% respectively. At six week after ethanol injection, a significant decrease in GP73 occurred.
Conclusion: Serum GP 73 can be used as a useful biomarker to confirm the diagnosis of HCC especially if combined with AFP and GP73 had promising prognostic value as it decreased after the treatment of HCC and is correlated to tumor size