Novel circulating protein biomarkers for thyroid cancer determined through data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry

BACKGROUND: Distinguishing between different types of thyroid cancers (TC) remains challenging in clinical laboratories. As different tumor types require different clinical interventions, it is necessary to establish new methods for accurate diagnosis of TC. METHODS: Proteomic analysis of the human serum was performed through data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry for 29 patients with TC (stages I–IV): 13 cases of papillary TC (PTC), 10 cases of medullary TC (MTC), and six cases follicular TC (FTC). In addition, 15 patients with benign thyroid nodules (TNs) and 10 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. Subsequently, 17 differentially expressed proteins were identified in 291 patients with TC, including 247 with PTC, 38 with MTC, and six with FTC, and 69 patients with benign TNs and 176 with HC, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. RESULTS: In total, 517 proteins were detected in the serum samples using an Orbitrap Q-Exactive-plus mass spectrometer. The amyloid beta A4 protein, apolipoprotein A-IV, gelsolin, contactin-1, gamma-glutamyl hydrolase, and complement factor H-related protein 1 (CFHR1) were selected for further analysis. The median serum CFHR1 levels were significantly higher in the MTC and FTC groups than in the PTC and control groups (P < 0.001). CFHR1 exhibited higher diagnostic performance in distinguishing patients with MTC from those with PTC (P < 0.001), with a sensitivity of 100.0%, specificity of 85.08%, area under the curve of 0.93, and detection cut-off of 0.92 ng/mL. CONCLUSION: CFHR1 may serve as a novel biomarker to distinguish PTC from MTC with high sensitivity and specificity.