Diagnostic Efficacy of Heat Shock Protein 90 Alpha (HSP90α), Neuron-Specific Enolase (NSE), and Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Serum Biomarkers in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

Jain, Meghna; Sharma, Ashish; Takodara, Sohil; Pepineni, Jaswanth K.; Mittal, Rishabh; Chaudhary, Manish

doi:10.31557/APJCP.2025.26.10.3797

Diagnostic Efficacy of Heat Shock Protein 90 Alpha (HSP90α), Neuron-Specific Enolase (NSE), and Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Serum Biomarkers in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

Department of Biochemistry, Geetanjali Medical College, Geetanjali University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

10.31557/APJCP.2025.26.10.3797

Abstract

Background: Lung cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, primarily due to late-stage diagnosis and limited treatment options. This study evaluates the diagnostic efficacy of serum biomarkers—Heat Shock Protein 90 alpha (HSP90α), Neuron-Specific Enolase (NSE), and Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA)—in distinguishing lung cancer patients from healthy individuals. Materials and Methods: A case-control study was conducted at a tertiary care center in the western region of India, from 2023 to 2024, enrolling 45 biopsy-confirmed lung cancer patients and 45 healthy controls. Serum levels of HSP90α, NSE, and CEA were analyzed, and their diagnostic performance was assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics v26. Results: A total of 90 participants (68.89% males, 34.11% females, aged 30–75 years) were analyzed. Among 45 confirmed cases, 37.78% were adenocarcinoma (ADC), 17.78% small cell carcinoma (SCC), and 44.44% squamous cell carcinoma (SQCC). Serum HSP90α levels were significantly elevated in lung cancer patients (68.4 ± 9.33 ng/mL) compared to controls (24.0 ± 7.09 ng/mL, p< 0.001). HSP90α demonstrated the highest diagnostic performance (sensitivity: 82.22%, specificity: 100%, accuracy: 91.11%, AUC: 1.0). NSE and CEA exhibited moderate sensitivity (73.33%, 68.89%) with AUCs of 0.82 and 0.86. The combination of HSP90α and CEA improved diagnostic accuracy, achieving 96.77% sensitivity and 87.5% NPV. Conclusion: HSP90α is a highly reliable biomarker for lung cancer detection, demonstrating superior accuracy compared to NSE and CEA. Combining HSP90α with CEA enhances diagnostic sensitivity, supporting a multi-marker approach for improved identification. These findings highlight the potential clinical utility of HSP90α in routine diagnostic settings.

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