Utility of squamous cell carcinoma antigen, carcinoembryonic antigen, Cyfra 21-1 and neuron specific enolase in lung cancer diagnosis: a prospective study from China / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Early detection and diagnosis is urgent for the sake of effective treatment strategy for lung cancer. However, a convenient, economical and relatively precise method is not available. We here report a prospective study to find the possible value of the combined use of four popular tumor markers in the early diagnosis of lung cancer among patients with suspicious nodules in the lung.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Six hundred and sixty inpatients with suspicious nodules in the lung were divided into a lung cancer group and a benign pulmonary tumor group according to post-operative histological examinations. Serum levels of four tumor markers including squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), Cyfra 21-1 and neuron specific enolase (NSE) were assayed for each patient. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed for each tumor marker. The power of lung cancer diagnosis of each tumor marker, as well as a combination of them were analyzed and compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The serum levels (median, range) of SCC, CEA, Cyfra 21-1 and NSE were 0.44 (0.01 - 35.70) ng/ml, 2.49 (0.30 - 26.78) ng/ml, 2.30 (0.82 - 73.33) ng/ml and 10.54 (0.10 - 56.41) ng/ml respectively in lung cancer group, and were 0.32 (0.01 - 0.90) ng/ml, 1.60 (0.20 - 8.93) ng/ml, 1.41 (0.72 - 4.82) ng/ml and 9.36 (6.56 - 24.24) ng/ml respectively in the benign pulmonary tumor group. The difference in each tumor marker between the two groups was significant (P < 0.05). The ROCs of SCC, CEA, Cyfra 21-1 and NSE were 0.702 (95%CI, 0.654 - 0.751), 0.611 (95%CI, 0.563 - 0.659), 0.650 (95%CI, 0.601 - 0.700) and 0.598 (95%CI, 0.542 - 0.654) respectively, indicating very low power of these four tumor markers. When a combination of SCC, CEA, Cyfra 21-1 and NSE were employed, the diagnosis power was strengthened.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>SCC, CEA, Cyfra 21-1 and NSE are valuable in the early diagnosis of lung cancer among suspicious nodules in the lung, especially when they were assayed together for one patient.</p>

Clinical analysis of operation combined chemotherapy for stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the therapeutic result of operation combined chemotherapy for stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From January 2000 to December 2003, the data of 83 cases with stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer undergoing operation combined chemotherapy and 33 cases with stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer undergoing non-operative therapy were retrospectively analyzed. The median survival time and the 1-, 2-, 3- year survival rates of the two groups were compared by the Kaplan-Meier method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The median survival time of the operation group was 20.3 months, and the 1-, 2-, 3- year survival rates were 85%, 70%, and 35% respectively. The median survival time of the non-operation group was 14.5 months and the 1-, 2-, 3- year survival rates were 75%, 33%, and 15% respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The therapeutic result of the operation combined chemotherapy for the stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer is better than that of the non-operative therapy obviously.</p>