Serum SYPL1 is a promising diagnostic biomarker for colorectal cancer

Abstract

BackgroundAt present, the overall sensitivity and specificity of blood biomarkers are insufficient for a diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). MethodsWe analyzed the serum synaptophysin like 1 (sSYPL1) in controls, adenoma patients, CRC patients, pre- and postoperative CRC patients by ELISA. ResultsThe upregulation of SYPL1 was confirmed in CRC tissues at both mRNA and protein levels. Consistently, sSYPL1 was significantly higher in CRC patients than in either controls (t = 14.50, P < 0.0001) or adenoma patients (t = 10.56, P < 0.0001) and was associated with lymph node invasion (χ2 = 4.27, P = 0.039). ROC curves showed that sSYPL1 performed superbly in distinguishing CRC patients from controls (AUC: 0.9481; sensitivity: 86.09%, specificity: 91.01%) and adenoma (AUC: 0.8631; sensitivity: 98.68%, specificity: 78.08%). This performance was much better than that of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or carbohydrate antigen 19–9 (CA19-9). Even for patients with low CEA levels (under 5 ng/mL), SYPL1 maintained the same high performance for identification of CRC. Furthermore, sSYPL1 levels declined significantly after radical surgery (t = 5.903, P < 0.0001). ConclusionsSYPL1 might be an outstanding marker for CRC diagnosis, especially for patients with low CEA levels.