AIM: To establish if a distinct urinary metabolic profile could be identified in Bangladeshi hepatitis-B hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) patients compared to cirrhosis patients and controls. METHODS: Urine samples from 42 Bangladeshi patients with HCC(39 patients with hepatitis-B HCC), 47 with cirrhosis on a background of hepatitis B, 46 with chronic hepatitis B, and seven ethnically-matched healthy controls were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) spectroscopy. A full dietary and medication history was recorded for each subject. The urinary NMR data were analyzed using principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial leastsquared discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) techniques. Differences in relative signal levels of the most discriminatory metabolites identified by PCA and OPLSDA were compared between subject groups using an independent samples Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) test with all pairwise multiple comparisons. Within the patient subgroups, the MannWhitney U test was used to compare metabolite levels depending on hepatitis B e-antigen(HBe Ag) status and treatment with anti-viral therapy. A BenjaminiHochberg adjustment was applied to acquire the level of significance for multiple testing, with a declared level of statistical significance of P < 0.05.RESULTS: There were significant differences in age(P < 0.001), weight(P < 0.001), and body mass index(P < 0.001) across the four clinical subgroups. Serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT) was significantly higher in the HCC group compared to controls(P < 0.001); serum α-fetoprotein was generally markedly elevated in HCC compared to controls; and serum creatinine levels were significantly reduced in the HCC group compared to the cirrhosis group(P = 0.004). A threefactor PCA scores plot showed clustering of the urinary NMR spectra from the four subgroups. Metabolites that contributed to the discrimination between the subgroups included acetate, creatine, creatinine, dimethyamine(DMA), formate, glycine, hippurate, and trimethylamine-N-oxide(TMAO). A comparison of relative metabolite levels confirmed that carnitine was significantly increased in HCC; and creatinine, hippurate, and TMAO were significantly reduced in HCC compared to the other subgroups. HBe Ag negative patients showed a significant increase in creatinine(P = 0.001) compared to HBe Ag positive patients in the chronic hepatitis B subgroup, whilst HBe Ag negative patients showed a significant decrease in DMA(P = 0.004) in the cirrhosis subgroup compared to HBe Ag positive patients. There were no differences in metabolite levels in HCC patients who did or did not receive antiviral treatment. CONCLUSION: Urinary NMR changes in Bangladeshi HCC were identified, corroborating previous findings from Egypt and West Africa. These findings could form the basis for the development of a cost-effective HCC dipstick screening test. AIM: To establish if distinct urinary metabolic profile could be identified in Bangladeshi hepatitis-B hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients compared to cirrhosis patients and controls. METHODS: Urine samples from 42 Bangladeshi patients with HCC (39 patients with hepatitis-B HCC) , 47 with cirrhosis on a background of hepatitis B, 46 with chronic hepatitis B, and seven ethnically-matched healthy controls were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. A full dietary and history records were for each subject. The urinary NMR Differences in relative signal levels of the most discriminatory metabolites identified by PCA and OPLSDA were compared between subject groups using an independent samples Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test with all pairwise multiple comparisons. the patient subgroups, the Mann Whitney U test was used to compare metabolite levels depending on hepatitis B e-antigen (HBe Ag) status and treatment with anti-viral therapy. A Benjamini Hochberg adjustment was applied to acquire the level of significance for multiple testing, with a declared level of statistical Significant differences in age (P <0.001), weight (P <0.001), and body mass index (P <0.001) across the four clinical subgroups. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was significantly higher in the HCC group compared to controls (P <0.001); serum α-fetoprotein was generally markedly elevated in HCC compared to controls; and serum creatinine levels were significantly reduced in the HCC group compared to the cirrhosis group (P = 0.004). A threefactor PCA scores plot showed clustering of the urinary NMR spectra from the four subgroups. Metabolites that contributed to the discrimination between the subgroups included acetate, creatine, creatinine, dimethyamine (DMA),formate, glycine, hippurate, and trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO). A comparison of relative metabolite levels confirmed that carnitine was significantly increased in HCC; and creatinine, hippurate, and TMAO were significantly reduced in HCC compared to the other subgroups. Ag negative patients showed a significant increase in creatinine (P = 0.001) compared to HBe Ag positive patients in the chronic hepatitis B subgroup, whilst HBe Ag negative patients showed a significant decrease in DMA (P = 0.004) in the cirrhosis subgroup compared to HBe Ag positive patients. There were no differences in metabolite levels in HCC patients who did or did not receive antiviral treatment. CONCLUSION: Urinary NMR changes in Bangladeshi HCC were identified, corroborating previous findings from Egypt and West Africa. These findings could form the basis for the development of a cost-effective HCC dipstick screening test.