Table 1.
The potential HCC diagnostic methods.
| Methods | Target | Disease | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imaging techniques 1 | Various data in clinical records, including images from abdominal ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, electronic health records, liver pathology, data from wearable devices, and multi-omics measurements can be used to predict liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, NAFLD, and for the differentiation of benign tumors from HCC. | NAFLD, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and HCC | [115,116,117] |
| Polygenic risk scores (PRS) | Variants in PNPLA3-TM6SF2-GCKR-MBOAT7 are combined in a hepatic fat PRS (PRS-HFC), and then adjusted for HSD17B13 (PRS-5). Similarly, a genetic risk score (GRS) based on three genetic variants of PNPLA3-TM6SF2-HSD17B13 is applied to evaluate how fatty liver disease influences the risk of cirrhosis and HCC. | NAFLD-related HCC | [118,119] |
| Biomarkers | For example, serum levels of inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 are significantly increased in HCC-NAFLD patients compared to those in patients with simple steatosis, NASH, and virus-related HCC. There are some other biomarkers, such as miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). | NAFLD-related HCC | [109,120,121,122,123] |
| Biomarker-based diagnostic algorithm (GALAD) | A GALAD score based on gender, age, and biomarker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), AFP-L3, and Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP). | Early-stage of HCC | [124,125,126] |
| Epigenetic factors with or without combined biomarkers | Epigenetic factors such as circular RNA SMARCA5 can be used as potential new biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma. In combination with serum lncRNA linc00152, UCA1 and AFP can show better predictive ability, with areas under the curve (AUC) of 0.912% and 82.9% sensitivity and 88.2% specificity. |
Hepatitis, cirrhosis, and HCC | [122,127] |
1 Imaging techniques, especially dynamic multiphase contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scanning and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are the most commonly used methods for the clinical diagnosis of HCC.