Diagnostic significance of a color Doppler ultrasound combined with serum CXCL16 and E-cad in cervical cancer

BACKGROUND: The use of effective non-invasive diagnostic markers in the early stage of cervical cancer is lacking currently. This study sought to investigate the value of color Doppler ultrasound combined with serum CXC chemokine ligand-16 (CXCL16) and epithelial cadherin (E-cad) levels in diagnosing cervical cancer. METHODS: Two hundreds cervical cancer patients admitted in our hospital between May 2018 and April 2020 were selected as the observation group. The control group included 100 healthy participants. The ultrasound parameters, and the serum CXCL16 and E-cad levels between the two groups and patients at different pathological stages were compared. The correlations between disease progress and ultrasound and serological indexes were analyzed. The diagnostic efficiency of an ultrasound and measures of serum CXCL16 and E-cad levels were compared as well. RESULTS: The peak systolic velocity (PSV) of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). In case of the resistance index (RI), the results were the opposite to the PSV (P<0.05). The PSV (P<0.05) and RI (P<0.05) were significantly different among different pathological stages. The serum CXCL16 (P<0.05) and E-cad (P<0.05) levels of participants in the observation group were significantly higher than those of patients in the control group. A pairwise comparison showed that the serum CXCL16 and E-cad levels increased significantly as the pathological stages of the cancer progressed. The diagnosis and disease progression of cervical cancer were positively correlated with PSV, CXCL16, and E-cad levels, and negatively correlated with the RI. Combining an ultrasound diagnosis with serum CXCL16 and E-cad levels had significantly higher diagnostic sensitivity than that of any individual indicator in patients with cervical cancer. The curve analysis showed that the cut-off values of PSV, the RI, CXCL16 and E-cad were 14.25, 0.50, 40.15 ng/mL and 85.36 pmmol/L, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity of color Doppler ultrasound combined with serum CXCL16 and E-cad levels in the diagnosis of cervical cancer is high. Thus, it is recommended that it be used in clinics.