Clinical significance of elevated ferritin

Ferritin is a term that people often hear in life. It is not an illusory substance, but a substance with very high nutritional value. It is very important to physical health, and the body cannot lack ferritin. However, if the ferritin level in the body is too high, it will also affect the health of the body. Let’s take a look at the clinical significance of increased ferritin.

Ferritin is a soluble tissue protein that stores iron in the body. Normal human serum contains a small amount of ferritin, but different detection methods have different normal values. The normal average is about 80-130ug/L (80-130ng/ml) for men and about 35-55ug/L (35-55ng/ml) for women. Serum iron levels decrease during pregnancy and acute anemia, and increase in acute and chronic liver damage and liver cancer. Domestic reports show that the positive rate of liver cancer patients is as high as 90%. In recent years, it has been found that liver cancer also contains an acidic isoferritin, called carcinoembryonic isoferritin, which may help with early diagnosis. The reasons for increased ferritin in liver cancer patients may be:

①Cancer cells can synthesize and secrete ferritin or isoferritin.

②The uptake and clearance of ferritin by liver cancer tissue is affected.

③ Liver cells are damaged and necrotic, and the ferritin stored in the liver cell cytoplasm overflows into the blood. Although serum ferritin is non-specific, except for liver cancer and pancreatic cancer, where it is moderately elevated, other digestive tract tumors such as esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer do not have elevated levels. In patients with liver cancer who are effectively treated, serum ferritin levels decrease, while those who deteriorate or relapse have elevated levels. Continued elevations indicate a poor prognosis. Therefore, serum ferritin determination can be used as a means of monitoring efficacy, especially for patients with negative AFP levels.

④ Serum ferritin is the most sensitive indicator for checking iron deficiency in the body. The ferritin in the liver accounts for about 1/3 of the iron stored in the body, and the ferritin in the blood circulation is cleared by liver cells, so liver disease can cause elevated serum ferritin. In addition, the amount of ferritin synthesized by malignant tumor cells increases, so ferritin is also one of the markers of malignant tumors.