Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1989 Mar;59(3):417–420. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1989.84

Alpha-L-fucosidase as a serum marker of hepatocellular carcinoma in southern African blacks.

S Bukofzer 1, P M Stass 1, M C Kew 1, M de Beer 1, H T Groeneveld 1
PMCID: PMC2247057  PMID: 2467686

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare alpha-L-fucosidase and alpha-fetoprotein as serum markers of hepatocellular carcinoma in 72 southern African blacks with this tumour and 64 matched patients with benign hepatic diseases which might be mistaken clinically for hepatocellular carcinoma. Alpha-L-fucosidase activity was assayed using p-nitrophenyl-L-fucopyranoside (pNpf) as a substrate and alpha-fetoprotein concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. Serum alpha-L-fucosidase activity in the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (mean 1,268, s.e.m. +/- 83.7, median 1,150 and range 38-3,698 nmol pNpf ml-1 h-1) was significantly higher than that in the matched controls (mean 798, s.e.m. +/- 65.8, median 648 and range 273-3,825 nmol pNpf ml-1 h-1) (P = 0.0001). However, alpha-L-fucosidase was both less sensitive (75 versus 87%) and less specific (70 versus 87%) than alpha-fetoprotein as a serum marker of hepatocellular carcinoma. When, in an endeavour to eliminate false-positive results, the diagnostic cut-off level for alpha-L-fucosidase was increased to 1,500 nmol pNpf ml-1 h-1 and for alpha-fetoprotein to 400 ng ml-1, the sensitivity of alpha-L-fucosidase fell to 21% whereas that of alpha-fetoprotein remained satisfactory at 78%. If the two markers were used together, the number of false-negative alpha-fetoprotein results was reduced from 13 to 5.5%. We conclude that alpha-L-fucosidase is less useful than alpha-fetoprotein as a single marker of hepatocellular carcinoma in southern African blacks. However, the two markers can profitably be used together.

Full text

PDF

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cabezas-Delamare M. J., Reglero A., Cabezas J. A. Hydrolytic enzyme activities, mainly from lysosomal localization, in sera from patients who ingested a toxic oil. Clin Chim Acta. 1983 Feb 28;128(1):53–59. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(83)90054-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Calvo P., Barba J. L., Cabezas J. A. Serum beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase, beta-D-glucosidase, alpha-D-glucosidase, beta-D-fucosidase, alpha-L-fucosidase and beta-D-galactosidase levels in acute viral hepatitis, pancreatitis, myocardial infarction and breast cancer. Clin Chim Acta. 1982 Feb 26;119(1-2):15–19. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(82)90400-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Deugnier Y., David V., Brissot P., Mabo P., Delamaire D., Messner M., Bourel M., Legall J. Y. Serum alpha-L-fucosidase: a new marker for the diagnosis of primary hepatic carcinoma? Hepatology. 1984 Sep-Oct;4(5):889–892. doi: 10.1002/hep.1840040516. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Durand P., Borrone C., Della Cella G. Fucosidosis. J Pediatr. 1969 Oct;75(4):665–674. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(69)80464-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Guillou H., David V., Lorcy Y., Le Treut A., Allannic H., Le Gall J. Y. Serum lysosomal acid hydrolase activities in Graves' disease. Clin Chim Acta. 1982 Apr 8;120(2):219–224. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(82)90158-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Herman A. A., Irwig L. M., Groeneveld H. T. Evaluating obstetric risk scores by receiver operating characteristic curves. Am J Epidemiol. 1988 Apr;127(4):831–842. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114866. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Holmes E. H., Hakomori S. Isolation and characterization of a new fucoganglioside accumulated in precancerous rat liver and in rat hepatoma induced by N-2-acetylaminofluorene. J Biol Chem. 1982 Jul 10;257(13):7698–7703. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Lynch H. T., Schuelke G. S., Wells I. C., Cheng S. C., Kimberling W. J., Biscone K. A., Lynch J. F., Danes B. S. Hereditary ovarian carcinoma. Biomarker studies. Cancer. 1985 Jan 15;55(2):410–415. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19850115)55:2<410::aid-cncr2820550220>3.0.co;2-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Reglero A., Carretero M. I., Cabezas J. A. Increased serum alpha-L-fucosidase and beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase activities in diabetic, cirrhotic and gastric cancer patients. Clin Chim Acta. 1980 Apr 25;103(2):155–158. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(80)90207-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Robinson D., Thorpe R. Human liver alpha-L-fucosidases. Clin Chim Acta. 1973 Sep 14;47(3):403–407. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(73)90273-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Troost J., van der Heijden M. C., Staal G. E. Characterization of alpha-L-fucosidase from two different families with fucosidosis. Clin Chim Acta. 1976 Dec 1;73(2):329–346. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(76)90180-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Turner B. M., Turner V. S., Beratis N. G., Hirschhorn K. Polymorphism of human alpha fucosidase. Am J Hum Genet. 1975 Sep;27(5):651–661. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Vischer P., Reutter W. Specific alterations of fucoprotein biosynthesis in the plasma membrane of Morris hepatoma 7777. Eur J Biochem. 1978 Mar 15;84(2):363–368. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1978.tb12176.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES