Efficacy of autoantibodies combined with tumor markers in the detection of lung cancer

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to explore the detection value of seven autoantibodies (TAAbs): p53, PGP9.5, SOX2, GBU4‐5, MAGE A1, CAGE, and GAGE7 and three tumor markers: CYFRA21‐1, NSE, and SCCA in the diagnosis of lung cancer. METHODS: ELISA was used to detect the levels of the TAAbs, and chemiluminescence immunoassay was used to test the levels of the tumor markers. The diagnostic efficacy of the TAAbs combined with the tumor markers for lung cancer was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: The positive rate of the combined detection of seven TAAbs and three tumor markers in lung cancer (37.8%) was higher than that in other three groups. The positive rates of SOX2, GAGE7, MAGE A1, CAGE, CYFRA21‐1, and SCCA had differences among the four groups. Compared with the benign lung disease group, only GAGE7, CYFRA21‐1, and SCCA differed among the groups. The combined sensitivity of the TAAbs was 29.07% (AUC, 0.594), the combined sensitivity of all the markers was 37.76% (AUC, 0.660 [p < 0.05]), and Youden's index was 0.196. In the lung cancer group, CYFRA21‐1 had a significant difference in age and sex, and SOX2, MAGE A1, CYFRA21‐1, NSE, and SCCA were significantly different in pathological type and TNM. In contrast, p53 and GBU4‐5 showed no significant differences in age, sex, pathological type, and TNM. CONCLUSIONS: The combined detection of seven TAAbs and three tumor markers could be useful in early diagnosis of lung cancer.