Moreover, the most widespread, principal cancer of the liver is what is known to be as hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC. This disease would usually emerge after a persistent swelling of the liver. The latter is a result of hepatitis B or C virus infection. Oftentimes, this is considered to be liver cirrhosis. This is what happens with liver cirrhosis. Several liver diseases group together which destroy those normal liver cells.  In return, these are being substituted by scar tissues. It is for this reason that the quantity of healthy liver tissues are being decreased in number. Furthermore, as scar tissues mount up, the development and normal operation of this organ is also interrupted. There are several reasons behind the acquisition of this disease. One is too much intake of alcohol. Another would be chronic viral hepatitis B, C as well as D infections. Parasitic viruses and bile ducts diseases are also known causes of liver cirrhosis.

        Statistics in China show that approximately five hundred thousand patients die annually because of liver cirrhosis or cancer of the liver. Those with prior history of liver cirrhosis account for sixty to eighty percent of the patients having liver cancer. On the other hand, statistics in Belgium illustrate that there are already three hundred fifty cases of this disease which happen annually. The only potential and promising medication for this is transplantation. Needless to say, detection of HCC in its initial phase could save several lives.

        Nowadays, concentration of specific substances known as markers which exist in the blood form as bases in distinguishing whether the growth is malignant or not. In the case of HCC, what is being employed is just one marker. Unluckily, this marker possesses low specificity and is often not enough because of false-positive outcomes.

        The detection of HCC, obviously, is very necessary. The development of a new test to distinguish this seems to be a very good solution. This latest procedure is made possible with Xeu-en Liu and Liesbeth Desmyter. These people collaborated with some colleagues under the custody of Cuiying Chen and in partnership with Chinese scientists. Prior to this, Prof. em Roland Contreras as well as Nico Callewaert also made a study on this. The new research team based their test on this previous undertaking. The subjects for this experiment were Chinese patients with liver cirrhosis. Concentrations of their blood were investigated. The original article also stated that the primary cause for their acquisition of the disease was hepatitis B infection. In the experiment, the researchers discovered that the amount of two specific sugar groups that emerge on the blood proteins were different depending on what stage the disease has already reached. The original article also stated the basis of the test.

        An integration of the AFP test and the new test resulted in an increase precision of the HCC diagnosis. The new test ensued in distinguishing who among the patients had liver cancer and who had not. This was rather difficult for just the AFP test. Closely monitoring the disease and its development would somehow be not as difficult for scientists to do. Presently, the scientists were employing this test for the analysis of diseases of the liver in observance with clinical practice.