الفهرس 
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality: HCC is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths (Ferlay et al., 2010). It is a highly malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. When HCC presents with clinical symptoms, the tumor is usually advanced and the patient has few therapeutic options (Di Bisceglie, 2004). Therefore, early diagnosis of HCC is very important. Advanced imaging modalities have been used for screening HCC (Ulmer, 2000) and several tumor markers have been recently investigated in HCC for assessing, diagnosis, and monitoring patients with diagnosed disease (Duffy, 2001).
Although the role of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) in the diagnosis of advanced HCC is well recognized, at least one third of HCC patients will be missed unless another diagnostic tool is used. Furthermore, AFP may be elevated in non-malignant liver diseases (Tsai et al., 1995). The identification of a marker that predicts the risk of extrahepatic or intrahepatic metastasis, and hence prognosis, is highly desirable. Several molecular biological factors have been shown to be associated with the invasiveness of HCC, and possess potential prognostic significance; however, routine biomarkers for the prediction of HCC prognosis are not yet available. Angiogenesis is a prime regulator of tumor growth (Hanahan and Folkman, 1996). The induction of tumor angiogenesis is a control point in tumor expansion and in the metastasis of tumor cells to distant sites (Weinstat-Saslow and Steeg, 1994).