An Integrative Multi-Omic Biomarker Panel Distinguishes Hepatocellular Carcinoma From Chronic Liver Disease in HBV-Predominant Populations.

Authors

Hao Zhuang, Xiaopei Hao, Tingting Zhang, Deqiang Li, Guanghao Li, Zhongyi Li, Yuanlin Xu, Shuaiya Ma, Xiangjun Qian, Bo Meng, Xianzhou Zhang, Tiantian Zheng, Feng Han, Hao Wang, Yongmei Li, Nanmu Yang

Published in

Hepatology research : the official journal of the Japan Society of Hepatology. Oct 16, 2026. Epub Oct 16, 2026.

Abstract

DNA methylation is a promising diagnostic biomarker for various cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to identify aberrant DNA methylation and protein alterations via integrated approaches and develop a highly predictive biomarker panel for blood-based discrimination of HCC from non-HCC chronic liver disease (CLD) in an HBV-predominant population.
Genome-wide methylation profiling was conducted to screen hypermethylated CpG sites and genes distinguishing 55 HCC and matched non-HCC tissues. Candidate marker genes were then evaluated with five protein markers in 299 blood samples, and a diagnostic model was developed and validated in an independent cohort of 149 participants.
Methylation pattern analysis identified 44 candidate hypermethylation biomarkers using four strategies. Through cross-validation, a panel of six methylation markers from four different groups yielded an AUC of 0.938, surpassing other methylation marker panels. A logistic regression model incorporating four DNA methylation markers and two protein markers achieved sensitivities of 91.8% and 88.4% at specificities of 95.4% and 93.8% in the training and validation sets, respectively. The 6-marker panel showed higher sensitivity of 82.9% for BCLC 0-A HCC, outperforming alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), and des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin (DCP).
The developed 6-marker model demonstrated strong diagnostic performance for distinguishing HCC from non-HCC CLD in the studied HBV-predominant cohorts. It outperformed AFP and DCP in this case-control setting and may have potential for blood-based HCC detection. Prospective validation in surveillance cohorts is required before clinical implementation.

PMID:
42888887
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.