Transforming growth factor (TGF ), according to Tomiya and Fujiwara (A-21), is alleged to play a role in malignant progression as well as normal cell growth in an autocrine manner, and its serum levels have been reported to increase during this progression. The present investigators have developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for measuring serum TGF levels in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) complicating cirrhosis. In a study in which they evaluated the significance of serum TGFa levels for diagnostic purposes, they collected the following measurements on the liver function tests, TGF (pg/ml), and serum -fetoprotein (AFP)

(ng/ml) from HCC patients:

TGF AFP TGF AFP TGF AFP TGF AFP 32.0 12866 44.0 23077 100.0 479 15.0 921 65.9 9 75.0 371 12.0 47 34.0 118 25.0 124.3 36.0 291 32.0 177 100.0 6.2 30.0 9 65.0 700 98.0 9 26.0 19 22.0 610 44.0 40 20.0 1063 53.0 594 40.0 238 56.0 9538 20.0 21 140.0 10 52.0 153 34.0 19 9.0 206 24.0 292 28.0 23 300.0 11 58.0 32 20.0 11 11.0 28 39.0 42246 39.0 628 35.0 37 45.0 240 82.0 12571 52.0 35 29.0 66 85.0 20 50.0 742 45.0 83 24.0 29 95.0 10 21.0 4 40.0 310 18.0 291 38.0 214 9.0 19 Source: Dr. Kenji Fujiwara. Used with permission.