# Comparison of diagnostic performance of GAAD, GALAD, and ASAP scores for detecting hepatocellular carcinoma in advanced liver fibrosis patients

## TL;DR

This study compares three diagnostic scores for detecting liver cancer in patients with advanced liver disease, finding that GAAD and ASAP perform better than traditional markers.

## Contribution

The study evaluates GAAD, GALAD, and ASAP scores in advanced liver fibrosis patients for hepatocellular carcinoma detection.

## Key findings

- GAAD slightly outperformed AFP with 76.2% sensitivity and 88.5% specificity.
- PIVKA-II and AFP-L3 showed poor performance in identifying hepatocellular carcinoma.
- GAAD and ASAP performed comparably to or better than AFP, suggesting potential for screening.

## Abstract

Alpha-fetoprotein L3 (AFP-L3 %) and protein induced by vitamin K absence-II (PIVKA-II) are used in diagnostic scores such as GAAD, GALAD, and ASAP for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detection. Advanced liver fibrosis (ALF) is diagnosable by the liver fibrosis index and could be combined with these blood biomarkers for better HCC detection.

This study developed an analytical framework to address the role of GAAD, GALAD, and ASAP in ALF patients as a risk score to predict HCC. By analyzing data from 21 HCC and 30 ALF patients, this analysis assessed the diagnostic accuracy of individual biomarkers, ASAP, GAAD, and GALAD.

GAAD slightly outperformed AFP (sensitivity: 76.2 %, specificity: 88.5 %). The combination of AFP and PIVKA-II also surpassed AFP alone. PIVKA-II and AFP-L3 showed the worst performance for identifying HCC.

GAAD and ASAP showed comparable or slightly superior performance to AFP, suggesting potential for screening strategies that should be confirmed in larger studies.