Predictive value of combined detection tumor markers in the diagnosis of lung cancer

Abstract

To evaluate the predictive value of combined five tumor markers (TMs) CEA, NSE, SCCA, CYFRA21-1 and ProGRP in the diagnosis of lung cancer(LC). Total of 305 hospitalized patients with LC were enrolled, 100 healthy subjects and 100 patients with benign lung diseases were selected as the healthy control (HC) group and BLD group, respectively. The levels of TMs in serum were detected by Flow fluorescence technique. Positivity rates were analyzed by using Chi-square test,The differences of tumor marker levels were compared using Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve was performed to analyze the diagnosis efficacy of TMs. The combined detection had a higher positive rate in patients with LC, adenoadenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and SCLC (70.82%, 64.74%, 76.4% and 81.03%, respectively) than each TM considered individually. The serological levels of CEA, NSE, SCCA, CYFRA21-1 in LC group were higher than HC and BLD group. The differences of them among the three groups were statistically significant (χ²=90.599, 32.802, 8.473, 40.397 respectively, all P values were<0.05), ProGRP level had no remarkable difference (χ²=3.366, P>0.05), whereas ProGRP level in SCLC were significantly higher compared with adenocarcinoma (Z=6.404,P<0.001) and squamous cell carcinoma (Z=5.765,P<0.001) group. The combined detection difference of positive rate between the early stages(stageⅠ and stage Ⅱ)and the advanced stages (stage Ⅲ and stage Ⅳ) were statistically significant(χ²=24.941, P<0.001).The positive rate of combined detection in the diagnosis of lung cancer lymph node metastasis(76.31%) or distant metastasis(78.18%) was significantly higher than that of single detection. Meanwhile, the positive rate of combined detection in patients with lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients without metastasis(χ²=24.60, 9.50 respectively, all P values were<0.05).The combined detection had a better sensitivity(70.82%), accuracy(69.10%)and negative predictive value (59.91%)in LC group than each TM considered individually.The ROC curve showed that the AUC of combined detection in the diagnosis of LC, lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma and SCLC were 0.769, 0.780, 0.766 and 0.831, respectively.The combined detection of five tumor markers of CEA, NSE, SCCA, CYFRA21-1 and ProGRP by flow fluorescence technique can improve the diagnostic efficiency of lung cancer.