Early diagnosis can significantly improve treatment outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Currently, the dosage of serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP) is widely used in the diagnosis of HCC, but this biomarker has low specificity and may cause false positive or false negative results. Thus, it’s necessary to find and validate other serum tumor markers that in association for AFP would increase the sensitivity and the specificity in the HCC diagnosis. This study investigated the predictive value of combined of AFP, AFP-L3, and Circulating tumor cells (CTCs). A total of 105 patients with HCC after microwave ablation (MWA) were divided into non recurrence group, recurrence group, good prognosis (CR + PR group, CR: Complete remission, PR: Partial remission) and poor prognosis (SD + PD group, SD: Stable, PD: Progression). ROC curve was used to analyze the short-term efficacy, prognosis and clinical value of combined detection of the three indicators in predicting postoperative recurrence of HCC patients with MWA. The positive rate of serum CTCs, AFP-L3 and AFP combined detection in the diagnosis of HCC is higher than that of single index and two index detection. The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of serum CTCs, AFP-L3 and AFP combined detection was better than that of single index and two indexes in patients with HCC after MWA. Combined detection of AFP, AFP-L3, and CTCs can effectively make up for the shortcomings of the detection with single and pairwise indicators. It can’t only diagnose HCC in early, but also has a high clinical value of predicting the short-term efficacy, prognosis and recurrence of HCC patients after MWA treatment.

中文翻译：

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联合检测循环肿瘤细胞，α-甲胎蛋白异基因-3和α-甲胎蛋白在肝癌的早期诊断中对微波消融后的疗效，预后和复发的预测

早期诊断可以显着改善肝细胞癌（HCC）患者的治疗效果。当前，血清甲胎蛋白（AFP）的剂量被广泛用于肝癌的诊断，但是这种生物标志物的特异性低，可能导致假阳性或假阴性结果。因此，有必要找到和验证其他血清肿瘤标志物，这些标志物与AFP联用会增加HCC诊断的敏感性和特异性。这项研究调查了AFP，AFP-L3和循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）组合的预测价值。105例微波消融术后肝癌患者分为非复发组，复发组，预后良好（CR + PR组，CR：完全缓解，PR：部分缓解）和预后不良（SD + PD组）， SD：稳定，PD：进步）。采用ROC曲线分析三项指标联合检测在MWC HCC患者术后复发中的近期疗效，预后和临床价值。血清CTC，AFP-L3和AFP联合检测在肝癌诊断中的阳性率高于单指标和二指标检测。MWA后HCC患者血清CTC，AFP-L3和AFP联合检测的AUC，敏感性和特异性优于单项指标和两项指标。AFP，AFP-L3和CTC的组合检测可以有效弥补单指标和成对指标的检测缺陷。它不仅可以早期诊断HCC，而且在预测MWA治疗后HCC患者的短期疗效，预后和复发方面具有很高的临床价值。