Clinical Evaluation of Tumor Markers for Diagnosis in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in China

Background: To evaluate the value of combined detection of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA),cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1), and carbohydrateantigen 125 (CA125) for the clinical diagnosis of nonsmallcell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and
Methods: Serum CEA, CYFRA21-1 and CA125 were assessed in140 patients with NSCLC, 90 patients with benign lung disease and 90 normal control subjects, and differencesof expression were compared in each group, and joint effects of these tumor markers in the diagnosis of NSCLCwere analyzed.
Results: Serum CEA, CYFRA21-1 and CA125 in patients with NSCLC were significantly higherthan those with benign lung disease and normal controls (P<0.05). The sensitivity of CEA, CYFRA21-1 andCA125 were 49.45%, 59.67%, and 44.87% respectively. As expected, combinations of these tumor markersimproved their sensitivity for NSCLC. The combined detection of CEA + CYFRA21-1 was the most cost-effectivecombination which had higher sensitivity and specificity in NSCLC. Elevation of serum CEA and CYFRA21-1was significantly associated with pathological types (P<0.05) and elevation of serum CEA, CYFRA21-1 andCA125 was significantly associated with TNM staging (P<0.05).
Conclusions: Single measurement of CEA,CYFRA21-1 and CA125 is of diagnostic value in the diagnosis of lung cancer, and a joint detection of these threetumor markers, could greatly improve the sensitivity of diagnosis on NSCLC. Combined detection of CEA +CYFRA21-1 proved to be the most economic and practical strategy in diagnosis of NSCLC, which can be usedto screen the high-risk group.