ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the diagnosis value of homocysteine (Hcy) combined with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen for esophageal cancer.Methods The serum levels of Hcy,CEA,CA199,CA724,CA50 and SCC antigen in 163 patients with esophageal cancer and 49 healthy people were measured.The diagnosis efficacy between the combination of Hcy,CEA and SCC antigen and the combination of CEA,CA199,CA724,CA50 and SCC antigen was compared.Results The levels of Hcy,CEA and SCC antigen were significantly raised in patients group as compared with the levels in control group (all P ＜ 0.05).The area under the ROC curve of Hcy was 0.722 (95 ％ CI 0.633-0.811),CEA was 0.619 (95 ％ CI 0.533-0.704) and SCC antigen was 0.685 (95 ％ CI 0.608-0.762),respectively.There were no significant differences among the three area under the ROC curve.The sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of the combination of CEA,CA199,CA724,CA50,SCC antigen were 69.9 ％,59.2 ％ and 67.5 ％,respectively,but the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of the combination of Hcy,CEA,SCC antigen were 96.3 ％,69.4 ％ and 90.1％,respectively.There was significant difference between the combination of Hcy,CEA,SCC antigen and the combination of CEA,CA199,CA724,CA50,SCC antigen (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The combination of Hcy,CEA,SCC antigen is helpful to determine the diagnosis and efficacy of esophageal cancer.