Combination of autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 and viral capsid antigen immunoglobulin A for improved detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Yu-Hui Peng,Li-Yan Xu,En-Min Li,Yi-Wei Xu,Chao-Qun Hong,Si-Qi Qiu,Tian-Tian Zhai

doi:10.3892/ol.2014.2286

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in Southern China and Southeast Asia, and early detection remains a challenge. Autoantibodies have been found to precede the manifestations of symptomatic cancer by several months to years, making their identification of particular relevance for early detection. In the present study, the diagnostic value of serum autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 in NPC patients was evaluated. The study included 112 patients with NPC and 138 normal controls. Serum levels of autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 and classical Epstein-Barr virus marker, viral capsid antigen immunoglobulin A (VCA-IgA), were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Measurement of autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 and VCA-IgA demonstrated a sensitivity/specificity of 42.9/94.9% [95% confidence interval (CI), 33.7–52.6/89.4–97.8%] and 55.4/95.7% (95% CI, 45.7–64.7/90.4–98.2%), respectively. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve for autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 (0.821; 95% CI, 0.771–0.871) was marginally lower than that for VCA-IgA (0.860; 95% CI, 0.810–0.910) in NPC. The combination of autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 and VCA-IgA yielded an enhanced sensitivity of 80.4% (95% CI, 71.6–87.0%) and a specificity of 90.6% (95% CI, 84.1–94.7%). Moreover, detection of autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 could differentiate early-stage NPC patients from normal controls. Our results suggest that autoantibodies against NY-ESO-1 may serve as a potential biomarker, as a supplement to VCA-IgA, for the screening and diagnosis of NPC.

Highlights

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common cancers in Southern China and Southeast Asia, where the incidence rate ranges from 20 to 50 per 100,000 and is approximately 100‐fold higher than that in the Western world [1,2]
The present study demonstrated that the detection of autoantibodies against NY‐ESO‐1 in the peripheral blood has potential diagnostic value for NPC
The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for autoantibodies against NY‐ESO‐1 in NPC patients was 0.821, with a sensitivity of 42.9% and specificity of 94.9%

Summary

Introduction

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common cancers in Southern China and Southeast Asia, where the incidence rate ranges from 20 to 50 per 100,000 and is approximately 100‐fold higher than that in the Western world [1,2]. A large number of studies describe the presence of autoantibodies to tumor‐associated antigens (TAAs) in serum samples from patients with a variety of types of cancer, including NPC [10,11,12,13,14,15]. Changes in the levels of gene expression and aberrant expression of tissue‐restricted gene products are PENG et al: NY-ESO-1 AUTOANTIBODIES IN NPC thought to mainly account for the humoral immune response to TAAs, which functions to remove precancerous lesions during the early events of carcinogenesis [16,17,18,19].

Methods

Results

Conclusion