Esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) is one of the leading malignant cancer in the world and especially in China with high incidence and mortality. The exploration of novel serum biomarkers is required for early detection of ESCC. We investigated the diagnostic value of serum insulin like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) in ESCC, evaluating its potential to improve the diagnosis of ESCC. The serum samples of 106 patients with ESCC and 107 normal controls were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The levels of IGFBP7 in ESCC group were significantly higher than that in normal controls, compared by the Mann-Whitney U test (P<0.0001). Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the diagnostic value of serum IGFBP7 was demonstrated. Versus normal group, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of all ESCC was 0.794 (95%CI: 0.735-0.853) and early-stage ESCC was 0.725 (95%CI: 0.633-0.817). With optimized cutoff value of 2.993 ng/mL, IGFBP7 showed certain diagnostic value with specificity of 90.7%, sensitivities of 40.6% and 32.4% in ESCC and early-stage ESCC, respectively. Considering the correlation between clinical data and IGFBP7, no significant association was found (all P>0.05). Thus, we supposed that serum IGFBP7 might be a potential biomarker in the diagnosis of ESCC.
Keywords: IGFBP7; biomarker; diagnosis.; esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; serum.