Press Release

01.10.2010

SCCA-IgM predicts the occurrence of HCC in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with liver cirrhosis

During the XX International Meeting on "Trends and Perspectives in Hepatology", held in Padua, Italy, on November 18-19, results of a multicentric study to evaluate the ability of serum SCCA-IgM to predict the occurrence of HCC in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with liver cirrhosis have been reported by F. Trevisani, Bologna University. The study carried out on 56 patients with HCV related cirrhosis showed that the SCCA-IgM cut-off value of 300 AU/ml could identify, among HCV cirrhotic patients, those at very low risk of developing HCC within one year, suggesting that the annual monitoring of serum SCCA-IgM could become a useful tool to improve the cost/effectiveness of the surveillance for an early diagnosis of HCC based on liver ultrasonography, excluding cases with a trifling risk of developing an HCC during the subsequent 12-24 months.