Introduction: Diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is important for improving the survival rate and selecting the optimum therapeutic option. However, some patients with HCC are not diagnosed until after symptoms appear, when the tumor is already advanced. Thus, biomarkers associated with HCC and novel diagnostic methods are required to improve the diagnosis of HCC. Mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the most widely used analytical tools in proteomic research. Furthermore, tandem MS (MS/MS) has been applied for the discovery and verification of protein biomarkers for clinical use.

Areas covered: We review candidate glycoprotein biomarkers, including their aberrant glycosylation discovered by MS-based proteomics techniques and their diagnostic strategies using human blood samples. Finally, we discuss the limitations and prospects of MS-based approaches for clinical applications.

Expert commentary: The development of biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity is essential for optimizing the management of HCC. Various glycoprotein biomarkers of HCC have been identified using MS-based techniques. MS-based assays will continue to play an important role in clinical applications for discovery and verification of biomarkers. Furthermore, combination of multibiomarker, improvements in sample enrichment and the development of highly sensitive MS methods will facilitate more rapid adoption of MS for the diagnosis of HCC.

简介：肝细胞癌（HCC）的诊断对于提高生存率和选择最佳治疗方案至关重要。但是，某些HCC患者只有在症状出现后才已经被诊断出来，才被诊断出来。因此，需要与HCC相关的生物标记物和新颖的诊断方法来改善HCC的诊断。质谱（MS）是蛋白质组学研究中使用最广泛的分析工具之一。此外，串联质谱仪（MS / MS）已用于发现和验证临床上使用的蛋白质生物标记物。

涵盖的领域：我们回顾了候选糖蛋白生物标记，包括其基于MS的蛋白质组学技术发现的异常糖基化及其使用人类血液样本的诊断策略。最后，我们讨论了基于MS的方法在临床应用中的局限性和前景。

专家评论：开发具有高敏感性和特异性的生物标志物对于优化HCC的管理至关重要。已使用基于MS的技术鉴定了HCC的各种糖蛋白生物标志物。基于MS的测定将继续在临床应用中发现和验证生物标记物中发挥重要作用。此外，多种生物标志物的结合，样品富集的改善以及高灵敏度MS方法的发展，将有助于更快速地采用MS诊断HCC。