ABSTRACT
Objective Ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) plays a central role in the development of esophageal cancer. However, As the executor of UPS, the expression and clinical significance of detection of serum ubiquitin (UB) in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma(ESCC) patients have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and diagnostic value of serum ubiquitin (UB) in ESCC. Methods A total of eighty-eight ESCC patients and forty healthy controls from February 2018 to May 2019 at the Affiliated Jiangyin Hospital of Nantong University were enrolled. Serum UB was measured by ELISA, and serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were determined by chemiluminescence method. The ROC curve was used to analyze the diagnostic value of each indicator. Besides, the correlation between serum UB and clinicopathological features of ESCC were analyzed. Results The level of serum UB in ESCC group was significantly higher than that in the control group[(41.96±3.273)ng/ml vs (80.86±7.993)ng/ml, P<0.05]. The level of serum UB in ESCC patients was related to lymphatic metastasis and tumor stage (P<0.05). The sensitivity of UB, SCC, CEA and the three combined diagnosis of ESCC were 65.9%, 52.3%, 51.1%, and 76.1%, respectively. The AUC under the ROC curve were 0.690, 0.677, 0.635, and 0.795, respectively. Conclusion Serum UB is highly expressed in ESCC and is closely related to tumor progression. Combined with SCC and CEA, UB can improve the sensitivity of diagnosis of ESCC and can be used as an effective serological screening biomarker.
ABSTRACT
Background and purpose:Due to the lack of cost-effective pre-treatment predictors for advanced cervical squamous cell carcinomas treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT), both baseline circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/- regulatory T cell (Treg) count and serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) level were measured for this feasibility study. Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 44 patients with stageⅡB-ⅣA cervical squamous carcinomas before CCRT. Flow cytometry immunophenotyping and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used for circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count and serum SCC-Ag level testing,respectively. Clinical and pathological characteristics were retrospectively reviewed to analyze the predictive value of the 2 indexes. Results:The baseline circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count was lower in the patient group with positive treatment response than in the group with negative response [(8.78±2.80)%vs (10.95±2.56)%, P<0.05], and the serum SCC-Ag level showed no signiifcant difference between the 2 groups. No correlation was detected between these 2 markers (Spearman’rho=-0.093, P=0.540). Determined by plotting receiver operating characteristic curves, the best cut-off points were 9.76%for circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count and 9.50 ng/mL for serum SCC-Ag level, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that pretherapeutic circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count (OR=1.901, 95%CI:1.112-3.219, P=0.017), but not serum SCC-Ag level (OR=0.998, 95%CI:0.001-4.253, P=0.897), was predictive of clinical response to CCRT. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that pre-treatment CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count was an independent predictor for clinical response to CCRT (OR=3.115, 95%CI:1.253-7.742, P=0.014). Conclusion:Pretherapeutic circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count is a feasible method to predict clinical response to CCRT in patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinomas.
ABSTRACT
Polyamines are closely related to cell growth and differentiation and increased levels of urine polyamines (UPs) has been reported in various human cancers. However, there were few reports on changes of UPs in patients with cervical carcinoma. We investigated the clinical utility of UPs as well as serum squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen in cervical carcinoma. The association of pretreatment SCC antigen and UPs with clinicopathologic parameters was assessed in 478 patients with cervical carcinoma. SCC antigen was measured by radioimmunoassay and UPs by enzymatic assay method. The prognostic significance of pretreatment SCC antigen and UPs, and the relationship between pretreatment and posttreatment SCC antigen and UPs according to treatment modalities were analyzed. There was a trend of increased level of UPs with cancer progression, whereas significant difference of SCC antigen value was found with cancer progression. Among various clinicopathologic parameters, tumor size and macroscopic lymph node metastasis were associated with pretreatment SCC antigen and UPs level as well. Increased pretreatment SCC antigen level (>2.0ng/ml) and UPs level (>45 micromol/g creatinine) had significant impact on survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that pretreatment SCC antigen, lymph node metastasis and tumor size were independent prognostic factors on survival in the same stage patients. SCC antigen levels decreased after radiotherapy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In patients treated by radiation, response status was associated with postradiation SCC antigen, which showed a good correlation with survivals. UPs positivity and SCC antigen positivity in 42 recurrent cervical cancers were 64.7% and 57.9%, respectively. Pretreatment SCC antigen, combination of SCC antigen and UPs, tumor size, macroscopic lymph node metastasis and invasion depth were correlated with recurrent or residual cervical carcinoma. In conclusion, UPs together with SCC antigen may be used to assess the extent of disease status and to define the prognosis in cervical carcinoma.