Clinical significance of Tim-4 in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of serum T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain-containing molecule-4 (Tim-4) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods 49 NSCLC patients who had been newly diagnosed and primarily untreated and ten cases as control group were collected.The level of serum Tim-4 was quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Correlation analysis was performed based on the results, and survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier. Results The level of serum Tim-4 in patients with NSCLC was higher than that in the control group (t=4.606, P<0.05), and the level of serum Tim-4 in adenocarcinoma patients was higher than that in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (t=-3.301, P<0.05). The serum Tim-4 could be a biomarker of NSCLC, the area under receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.811, the sensitivity and specificity were 59.2% and 90%, 95%CI: 0.680-0.943, P<0.05.Higher serum Tim-4 level had a lower survival rate in patients with NSCLC, and vice versa.Serum Tim-4 level was a risk factor for the survival rate of patients with NSCLC (95%CI: 2.116-8.673, P<0.001). Conclusions The serum Tim-4 is a potential tumor biomarker for NSCLC patients.It has an adverse influence on the prognosis of NSCLC patients.It shows that high level of serum Tim-4 suggests poor prognosis. Key words: Non-small cell lung cancer; T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain-containing molecule-4; Receiver operating characteristic curve