Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinical significance of serum SLC7A11 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods A total of 120 patients with HCC admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to December 2020 were enrolled as HCC group, and 78 liver cirrhosis persons (LC) who underwent physical examination were enrolled as control group. Among the 120 patients in the HCC group, 60 were the early stage HCC and 60 were advanced HCC. Clinical data of all patients including serume levels of total bilirubin (TBil), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), prothrombin time (PT), albumin (Alb), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), and SLC7A11 were collected. The TBil, ALT, PT, Alb, AFP and SLC7A11 levels of HCC patients were analyzed. The diagnostic values of AFP, SLC7A11 and AFP combined with SLC7A11 were analyzed. Continuous data was compared by independent samples t-test, categorical data was analyzed by chi-square test. The ROC curve analysis was used for diagnostic evaluation.Results The serum levels of TBil and PT in the early stage HCC group were significantly lower than those in the advanced HCC group (t=-5.015 and -6.068, all P<0.01),and the level of Alb in the early stage HCC group was significantly higher than that of the advanced HCC group (t=-3.503, P<0,01). The serum SLC7A11 of patients with early stage HCC was lower than that of patients with advanced HCC [(55.71 ± 18.98) ng/mL vs (65.31 ± 22.31) ng/mL, t=-2.538, P<0.05]. The serum TBil and PT of patients in the early stage HCC group were significantly lower than those of LC group (t=2.999 and 4.687, all P<0.01). The serum SLC7A11, AFP and Alb of patients in the early stage HCC group were significantly higher than that of patients in LC group [SLC7A11: (55.71 ± 18.98) ng/mL vs (37.38 ± 19.98) ng/mL, t=-5.462, P<0.01; AFP (673.58 ± 587.90) vs (147.87 ± 95.05), t=-7.775, P<0.01; Alb (35.71 ± 3.83) ng/mL vs (32.10 ± 5.52) ng/ mL, t=-4.333, P<0.01]. There was no significant difference between SLC7A11 and AFP in the diagnosis of HCC (AUC 0.792 and 0.801, respectively), but the combined test (AUC 0.869) was significantly higher than the single test. There was no significant difference between SLC7A11 and AFP alone in the diagnosis of early stage HCC (AUC 0.752 and 0.765, respectively), but the combined detection (AUC 0.802) was significantly higher than that of single detection.Conclusion The serum SLC7A11 has certain clinical value in the diagnosis of early HCC, especially combined with AFP.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, SLC7A11, Alpha-fetoprotein, Tumor marker