Word: afp
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Wands and his French colleague, Dr. Dominique Bellet, announced Tuesday that they had developed the new test, which examines the blood levels of alphafetoprotein (AFP), a substance produced in the liver of fetuses but which usually disappears after birth...
...described its three greatest advantages as its sensitivity to AFP, its specificity, and the fact that it is very simple and inexpensive to perform...
Wands and Bellet tested the new detective method on more than 3,000 subjects, some of them carriers of hepatitis, B. others sufferers of cirrhosis or other malignant tumors of the liver. They found that only those with primary liver cell cancer showed high levels of AFP...
...said there was a danger that the test would defect high AFP levels in the blood of patients who did not have primary liver cell cancer, but instead had some other disease of the liver...
Although Holmes is optimistic that the AFP tests will prove effective, he is uncertain what action the FDA will take. The regulations that would enable the screening process to become widely available. He noted the opposition to the process expressed by anti-abortion groups at the FDA hearings last month might influence the agency's decision and prevent the screening process from becoming widely available...