Diagnostic value of tumor-associated autoantibodies panel in combination with traditional tumor markers for lung cancer

Yu Xu; Wenjing Zhang; Tingting Xia; Yuliang Liu; Zhoukui Bi; Liang Guo; Weijia Xie; Ying Xiang; Zhi Xu; Zubin Yu; Yafei Li; Li Bai

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1022331

Diagnostic value of tumor-associated autoantibodies panel in combination with traditional tumor markers for lung cancer

Front Oncol. 2023 Feb 15:13:1022331. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1022331. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yu Xu¹, Wenjing Zhang¹, Tingting Xia², Yuliang Liu³, Zhoukui Bi¹, Liang Guo¹, Weijia Xie², Ying Xiang², Zhi Xu¹, Zubin Yu^{4

5}, Yafei Li², Li Bai¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.
² Department of Epidemiology, College of Preventive Medicine, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.
³ Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁴ Department of Thoracic Surgery, North-Kuanren General Hospital, Chongqing, China.
⁵ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Introduction: The diagnostic value of 7 tumor-associated autoantibodies (AABs) including p53, PGP9.5, SOX2, GAGE7, GBU4-5, MEGEA1, and CAGE for the detection of lung cancer has shown inconsistency in several studies. This study aimed to confirm the diagnostic value of 7AABs and to explore whether the diagnostic value would be improved by combining them with 7 traditional tumor-associated antigens (CEA, NSE, CA125, SCC, CA15-3, pro-GRP, and CYFRA21-1) in clinical settings.

Methods: The plasma levels of 7-AABs were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 533 lung cancer cases and 454 controls. The 7 tumor antigens (7-TAs) were measured by Electrochemiluminescence immunoassay with Cobas 6000 (Roche, Basel, Switzerland).

Results: The positive rate of 7-AABs in the lung cancer group (64.00%) was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (47.90%). The 7-AABs panel was able to discriminate lung cancer from controls with a specificity of 51.50%. After combining the 7-AABs with 7-TAs, the sensitivity showed a significantly enhancement compared with 7AABs panel alone (92.09% vs 63.21%). In patients with resectable lung cancer, the combination of 7-AABs and 7-TAs improved the sensitivity from 63.52% to 97.42.

Discussion: In conclusion, our study found that the diagnostic value of 7-AABs was enhanced when combined with 7-TAs. This combined panel could be used as promising biomarker to detect resectable lung cancer in clinical settings.

Keywords: biomarkers; early diagnostic value; lung cancer; tumor-associated antigens; tumor-associated autoantibodies.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Foundation for Clinical Research from Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University (No.2014YLC13 to LB); and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81370139 to LB; No.81871896 and 81672316 to YFL), and 2022 Chongqing Science andHealth Joint Major Project (No.2022ZDXM023 to LB).