ABSTRACT
Objective The study was designed to investigate the serum levels of HE4 in patients with lung cancer,and explore its prognostic value.Methods Blood samples of 106 healthy adults and 191 patients with lung cancer before treatment were measured by means of ELISA for HE4 levels in different stages and pathological types,for analyzing prognostic effect of HE4.Results The serum levels of HE4 in patients with lung cancer (median level 91.63 pmol/L) were significantly higher than control group (median level 56.42 pmol/L) (U =3 081.00,P ＜ 0.05).AUC of serum HE4 was 0.85,with a cut-off value of 82.70 pmol/L (specificity =95.31％,sensitivity =62.32％).HE4 expression was not statistically related to clinical stage and pathological types of lung cancer.The median overall survival (mOS) was 36.87 months in the HE4-low group and 30.43 months in the HE4-high group (P ＜0.05),respectively.HE4 level was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (HR =2.15,95％ CI 1.49-3.12,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The prognosis of patients with high HE4 expression is poor.Therefore,it might be necessary for patients with high level of HE4 to receive more aggressive adjuvant therapy.