Alpha-fetoprotein in primary liver cancer and other diseases.

Progress report Alpha-fetoprotein in primary liver cancer and other diseases Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is an alpha1 globulin normally present in high concentration in fetal serum but in only very small amounts thereafter. Although many of its physico-chemical properties have been determined1, the role of AFP in ontogenesis is not yet known. In 1963 Abelev and his associates2'3 noted the occurrence of a fetus-specific alpha globulin in the serum of adult mice with chemically induced hepatomas. When, shortly afterwards, Tatarinov4,5 found AFP in the serum of patients with primary hepatocellular cancer, the exciting prospect appeared of an immunochemical marker which could be used in the diagnosis of this tumour. Its value in this regard has since been conclusively demonstrated and extensively documented in studies from many parts of the world6-17. However, relatively little is known about the dynamics of the protein during the course of the disease, and even less about the reason for the resumption of its synthesis by the tumour.