Clinical significance of serum S100A10 in lung cancer

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical significance of serum S100 calcium-binding protein A10 (S100A10) levels in lung cancer. METHODS: This prospective study enrolled patients with lung cancer, patients with benign lung nodules and healthy control subjects. Serum S100A10 levels and three biomarkers were measured and compared between the groups. Associations between serum S100A10 and clinical characteristics in patients with lung cancer were investigated. The diagnostic efficacy of serum S100A10 and carcinoembryonic antigen for lung cancer was calculated. RESULTS: The study enrolled 82 patients with lung cancer, 21 with benign lung nodules and 50 healthy controls. Serum S100A10 levels were significantly higher in patients with lung cancer compared with patients with benign lung nodules and healthy control subjects. Serum S100A10 levels of patients with advanced lung cancer were significantly higher than those with early stage disease. Patients with lymph node metastases had significantly higher serum S100A10 levels than patients without lymph node metastases. The cut-off serum S100A10 value for lung cancer detection was 1.34 ng/ml, which had a sensitivity of 48.2%, a specificity of 76.2% and an area under the curve of 0.63. CONCLUSION: Serum S100A10 was significantly correlated with disease stage and lymph node metastasis. It has the potential to be a tumour biomarker for lung cancer.