Apparently the levels of hCG and hGH-V detected in the patient's
blood in different entities of GTD seems to be variable. In the presented
case of CHM (Fig. 3) serum levels of hCG compared to hGH-V are much
lower than in the presented case of CCA (Fig. 4). It is tempting to speculatewhether
a hCG/hGH-V ratio could be of use in determining the biological
characteristics of the type of GTD in clinical routine.
Both cases demonstrate the possible role of hGH-V as a biomarker
in GTD. Further data is required to determine its clinical utility especially
due to its short serum half-life. In this contextwe like to stress the point
that in four of sixteen cases hGH-V was not detectable in the serum despite
its presence in IHC in all samples analyzed.
A limiting factor for further studies is the low incidence of GTD and
the ubiquitous available, well-established marker hCG.