Abstract: Objective To investigate the clininal value of joint detection of abnormal serum prothrombin (PIVKA-Ⅱ) and AFP different plastid 3 (AFP-L3) in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after conventional transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) therapy. Methods 63 HCC patients who underwent TACE were divided into >50% and <50% reduction subgroups according to the change of liver lesion size (in diameter), and into complete response (CR), partial response (PR), disease stability (SD) and disease progression (PD) subgroups according to the efficacy. Serum PIVKA - Ⅱ and AFP - L3 levels was detected and analyzed with Pearson analysis. Results Serum PIVKA-Ⅱ and AFP-L3 levels at 4 weeks and 8 weeks after surgery were lower than those before surgery, and showed a decreasing trend (F=12.478, 10.719, both P<0.05). Serum PIVKa-Ⅱ and AFP-L3 levels in >50% reduction subgroup were lower than those in <50% subgroup (t=7.873, 8.264, all P<0.05). Serum PIVKa-Ⅱ and AFP-L3 levels in CR group were lower than those in PR, SD and PD groups, and showed an increasing trend in these groups, respectively (F=15.682, 9.825, all P<0.05). After Pearson correlation analysis, the sensitivity and specificity of combined detection of serum PIVKa-Ⅱ and AFP-L3 levels were higher than those of single index detection (87.61% and 93.26%, both P<0.05). Conclusion A joint detection of PIVKA Ⅱ and serum AFP - L3 levels has high clinical value for evaluating the prognosis of HCC patients post TACE therapy.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization therapy, PIVKA-Ⅱ, AFP-L3