Alpha-fetoprotein glycosylation is abnormal in some hepatocellular carcinoma, including white patients with a normal alpha-fetoprotein concentration.

Lectin-affinity analyses with Lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA) and other lectins have demonstrated that the glycosylation of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) secreted by hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) is frequently altered when the serum AFP concentration is increased. To determine if AFP LCA-binding properties are altered in patients with HCC whose serum AFP concentration is normal, the percentage of LCA-binding AFP in serum from white newborns, white normal adults, white patients with chronic hepatitis and hereditary tyrosinemia and white and black patients with HCC were determined. The serum LCA-binding AFP fraction was low in newborns (1-4%) and normal adults (1-8%). There was a significant increase in LCA-binding AFP in patients with chronic hepatitis (10-24%) and hereditary tyrosinemia (5-35%). The AFP LCA-binding fraction was clearly abnormal (greater than 40%) in three of the white patients with an HCC and a normal serum AFP concentration, and the range of values (10-63%) in these HCC patients was similar to that seen in both white and black patients with HCC accompanied by increased AFP concentrations.