Abstract:

Objective   To detect serum IL-28B expression in HBV related PHC patients and its significance.  Methods   92 serum samples, including chronic hepatitis B(CHB, 26 cases), HBV related liver cirrhosis(LC, 22 cases) primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC,34 cases) and healthy controls(10 cases), were collected. Serum IL-28B level was examined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) and its correlation with clinical parameters was analyzed. Meanwhile, confirmatory test was used to determine the role of IL-28B in diagnosing PHC. Results   ① Serum IL-28B levels of PHC group were significantly higher than those of CHB, LC and control groups(P<0.01). There was no correlation between serum IL-28B levels and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels or HBV-DNA levels in PHC group(P>0.05). Stratified analysis suggested that serum IL28B levels of the paitents whose  tumor number was  less than 3 ，were higher than those  of the paitents whose tumor number was  equal  to  or  more than 3(P<0.05). ② The area under the ROC curve of IL-28B was 0.883，and the optimal cut-off value was 611.0pg/mL when diagnosing PHC, with sensitivity of 82.4％ and specificity of 93.1％. Combined detection of IL-28B and alpha-fetoprotein(AFP) could improve the sensitivity up to 88.2％ and maintain a moderate level of specificity of 82.8％．Conclusion   Serum IL-28B expression in PHC group increases significantly and it has some relationship with both tumor number and diameter, which suggests that IL-28B may play a role in the development of PHC. IL-28B combined with AFP may enhance thediagnostic accuracy of PHC and it may be taken as another useful index in diagnosing PHC.

Key words: Interlukine-28B; Primary hepatocellular carcinoma; Chronic HBV infection; Alphafetoprotein; Tumor biomarker