Press Release

01.03.2011

Prediction of the prognosis of HCC patients by SCCA-IgM

Results deriving from a clinical study on the application of SCCA-IgM to predict prognosis in HCC patients coordinated by Fabio Farinati, Department of Surgical and Gastroenterological Sciences Padua University, has been presented during the EASL annual meeting in Berlin. The study conducted on serum samples obtained from 78 HCC patients and 119 cirrhotics showed that with a cut-off of 130 U/ml, SCCA-IgM was efficient in the prediction of the prognosis of HCC patients, identifying those with a longer survival [48 months median survival in SCCA-IgM < 130 vs 26 in SCCA-IgM>130 (p=0.018), survival at 48 months 40% vs 7%]. This predictive capacity was confirmed by Cox multivariate analysis, that identified tumour size (p=0.001) and SCCA-IgM levels (p=0.004) as independent predictors of survival.