The diagnostic value of serum insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 in gastric cancer

PeerJ. 2023 Jun 5:11:e15419. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15419. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Backgrounds: Early detection might help in reducing the burden and promoting the survival rate of gastric cancers. Herein, we tried to explore the diagnostic value of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) in gastric cancers.

Methods: In this study, we first analyzed the expression levels and prognostic value of IGFBP7 mRNA in gastric cancers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then, we recruited 169 gastric cancer patients and 100 normal controls as training cohort, and 55 gastric cancer patients and 55 normal controls as independent validation cohort. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was applied to test the serum levels of IGFBP7. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and the area under the curve (AUC) were applied to evaluation the diagnostic value.

Results: TCGA showed that IGFBP7 mRNA was dysregulated and associated with prognosis in gastric cancer patients. Then, we examined the expression of serum IGFBP7 and found that serum IGFBP7 expressed lower in gastric cancer patients than normal controls both in training and independent validation cohorts (p < 0.0001). In training cohort, with the cutoff value of 1.515 ng/ml, the AUC for distinguishing gastric cancer patients was 0.774 (95% CI [0.713-0.836]) with sensitivity of 36.7% (95% CI [29.5-44.5]) and specificity of 90.0% (95% CI [82.0-94.8]). As for early-stage EJA, the AUC was 0.773 (95% CI [0.701-0.845]) with the sensitivity of 33.3% (95% CI [14.4-58.8]). In independent validation cohort, with the same cutoff value, the AUC reached to 0.758 (95% CI [0.664-0.852]). Similarly, for early-stage gastric cancer diagnosis in the independent validation cohort, the AUC value was 0.778 (95% CI [0.673-0.882]).

Conclusions: This study indicated that serum IGFBP7 might act as a potential early diagnostic marker for gastric cancers.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Gastric cancer; Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-7; Serum biomarker; TCGA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Area Under Curve
  • Humans
  • Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • Stomach Neoplasms* / diagnosis

Substances

  • Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins
  • RNA, Messenger
  • insulin-like growth factor binding protein-related protein 1

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (81972801); the Science and Technology Special Fund of Guangdong Province of China (STKJ202209069); the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation-the Enterprise Joint Research Project (2022A1515220116, 2022A1515220180 and 2022A1515220182); the Youth Research Fund Project of Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College (2023A005); the Innovative Team Grant of Guangdong Department of Education (2021KCXTD005); the 2020 Li Ka Shing Foundation Cross-Disciplinary Research Project Fund (2020LKSFG01B and 2020LKSFG01D) and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Shantou City (190413105262902). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.