Abstract: AIM: To analyze the changes of hepatocyte growth factor(HGF) concentration in serum after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance. METHODS: Thirty patients with hepatic cellular cancer (HCC) undergoing TACE were studied. Serum HGF levels were determined using ELISA kit before and after TACE respectively. The correlations of clinical pathologic parameters with the serum HGF concentration were analyzed respectively. Serum HGF concentrations of 10 healthy blood donors and 10 patients with chronic viral hepatitis B (CH) and 10 patients with liver cirrhosis(LC) were studied as control respectively. RESULTS: The mean HGF level in the HCC group was significantly higher than those in the normal controls, the CH group and the LC group[(0.63 ± 0.28) ng /mL vs (0.17 ±0.04) ng /mL, (0.35 ± 0.08) ng /mL and (0.39 ±0.09) ng /mL, P <0.05]. There was a peak of serum HGF concentrations on the third day after TACE[(1.37 ±0.21) ng /mL], and the HGF level declined on the seventh day[(0.79 ±0.14) ng /mL], and then returned to normal level on the twenty-eighth day[(0.66 ±0.19) ng /mL]. The patients with metastases after TACE had a higher level of serum HGF than others [(0.94 ±0.18) ng /mL vs (0.51 ±0.23) ng /mL, P <0.05]. The patients who were treated with larger volumes had a higher level of serum HGF than those who were treated with smaller volumes on the third day after TACE [(1.74 ±0.16) ng /mL vs (1.16 ±0.17) ng /mL, P <0.05]. CONCLUSION: Serum HGF level is a useful tumor marker and an indicator of prognosis for patients with HCC, the sustained high level of HGF may be a factor related to early tumor metastases.

Key words: hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatocyte growth factor, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization