Serum tumor markers (carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen 19-9, carbohydrate antigen 72-4, carbohydrate antigen 24-2, ferritin) and gastric cancer prognosis correlation

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer is a kind of malignant tumor which is prevalent all over the world.Although some progress has been made in the treatment of gastric cancer,its prognosis is still not optimistic,so it is of great significance to find reliable prog-nostic indicators to guide the treatment and management of patients with gastric cancer.AIM To explore the relationship between serum levels of five biomarkers[carcinoem-bryonic antigen(CEA),carbohydrate antigen(CA)19-9,CA72-4,CA24-2,and ferritin]and prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.METHODS This study included 200 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma,and conducted an in-depth analysis of their baseline characteristics,relationship between tumor markers and staging,and prognosis.The study found that CA19-9 has a signi-ficant correlation with tumor stage,the average levels of CA24-2,CEA,CA72-4 and ferritin were slightly increased disregarding the stage of tumor.Survival analysis showed that increases in CEA,CA19-9,CA24-2,and ferritin were all associated with shortened overall survival of patients.Further multivariate ana-lysis revealed that elevated serum CA72-4 levels were an inde-pendent adverse prognostic factor.RESULTS This study reveals that there is a significant correlation between the expression levels of serum tumor markers CEA,CA19-9,CA72-4,CA24-2 and ferritin in patients with gastric cancer and prognosis,and can be used as important indicators for prognostic evaluation of gastric cancer.In particular,markers that appear abnormally elevated initially may help identify gastric cancer patients with poor prognosis.CONCLUSION Serum CEA and CA19-9 play an important role in the prognosis assessment of gastric cancer,and are effective tools to guide clinical practice and optimize individualized treatment strategies for gastric cancer patients.

Prospective study of MMP7 serum levels in the diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma

AIM: To determine whether the serum level of matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP7) has the potential to diagnosis cholangiocarcinoma from benign biliary tract diseases. METHODS: This study was performed according to the PRoBE (a prospective-specimen-collection, retrospectiveblinded-evaluation) design. A total of 187 patients with obstructive jaundice were consecutively enrolled. After the diagnostic status of these patients was ascertained, their levels of serum MMP7 were assayed and compared with serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9). This was conducted in a blinded case (cholangiocarcinoma)control (benign biliary tract disease) setup. RESULTS: MMP7 and CA19-9 serum levels were significantly elevated in cholangiocarcinoma patients (P < 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) from a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for thediagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma, using MMP7 was more accurate than CA19-9 (AUC = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.778-0.903 for MMP7 and AUC = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.708-0.868 for CA19-9). The sensitivity and specificity of serum MMP7 (cut-off value of 5.5 ng/mL) was 75% and 78%, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of serum CA19-9 (cut-off value of 100 U/mL) was 68% and 87%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Serum values of MMP7 and CA19-9 appear to be useful biomarkers for differentiating cholangiocarcinoma from benign biliary tract obstructive diseases.