Abstract 3980: Combined detection of serum Dickkopf-1 and its autoantibodies to diagnose esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) can be treated effectively if diagnosed at an early stage. We evaluated whether measurement of Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) in combination of DKK1 autoantibodies in serum may benefit early diagnosis of ESCC. Serum DKK1 and DKK1 autoantibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in a training cohort (185 ESCC samples vs. 97 normal controls) and validated in a validation cohort (104 ESCC samples vs. 53 normal controls). Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was applied to calculate diagnostic accuracy. The serum levels of DKK1 and DKK1 autoantibody were significantly higher in ESCC patients than in controls, respectively (P<0.0001). Measurement of serum DKK1 demonstrated an area under curve (AUC) of 0.709 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.647-0.771], 37.3% sensitivity, and 90.7% specificity in the training set and an AUC of 0.697 (95% CI, 0.613-0.780), 41.3% sensitivity, and 84.9% specificity in the validation set. Testing of DKK1 and DKK1 autoantibodies together effectively improved the diagnostic accuracy for ESCC versus normal controls compared with either test alone (AUC 0.769, 95% CI 0.715-0.823, 50.3% sensitivity, and 90.7% specificity in the training cohort; AUC 0.752, 95% CI 0.675-0.829, 50.0% sensitivity, and 84.9% specificity in the validation cohort). Importantly, the diagnostic performance of the combination of DKK1 and DKK1 autoantibodies persisted in early ESCC patients (AUC 0.780, 95% CI, 0.699-0.862, 50.0% sensitivity, and 90.7% specificity in the training cohort; AUC 0.745, 95% CI, 0.626-0.865, 53.8% sensitivity, and 84.9% specificity in the validation cohort). Furthermore, the levels of serum DKK1 or DKK1 autoantibody after surgical resection were lower, respectively, compared with the corresponding preoperative samples (P<0.05). Our results suggest that measurement of DKK1 combined with DKK1 autoantibodies is a potentially valuable tool for the early detection of ESCC. Citation Format: Yu-Hui Peng, Yi-Wei Xu, En-Min Li, Li-Yan Xu. Combined detection of serum Dickkopf-1 and its autoantibodies to diagnose esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3980.