Abstract:

Primary liver cancer is a malignant tumor with the intense incidence rate and mortality in China，and hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC） is the most important pathological type. The determination based on peripheral blood biomarkers is crucial for the diagnosis，monitoring and prognosis evaluation of HCC. The most commonly used peripheral blood biomarker in clinical practice is alpha-fetoprotein （AFP），but only about 50%-60% of HCC patients are AFP positive，greatly limiting its clinical application. In the recent years，with the development of various determination technologies，more and more new peripheral blood biomarkers for HCC have been identified，which included proteins，circulating tumor DNA（ctDNA），circulating free RNA，extracellular vesicles（EV），circulating tumor cells（CTC） and so on，providing a reference for accurate diagnosis of liver cancer，prognosis and efficacy evaluation. However，the clinical significance of the newest biomarkers lacks systematic review，which has not yet been used in clinical practice. The review focuses on the clinical value of peripheral blood determination indicators for HCC and comments on their application prospects.

Key words: Circulating tumor DNA, Circulating free RNA, Extracellular vesicle, Circulating tumor cell, Hepatocellular carcinoma