Serum albumin and globulin analysis for hepatocellular carcinoma detection avoiding false-negative results from alpha-fetoprotein test negative subjects

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of serum albumin and globulin were employed to detect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Tentative assignments of SERS bands show specific biomolecular changes associated with cancer development. These changes include a decrease in relative amounts of tryptophan, glutamine, glycine, and serine, indicating excessive consumption of amino acids for protein duplication. Principal component analysis was also introduced to analyze the obtained spectra, resulting in both diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 100%. More importantly, it reveals that this method can detect HCC patients with alpha-fetoprotein negative test results, suggesting its great potential as a new alternative to detect HCC.