Initial investigation of serum homocysteine as cancer biomarker / 国际外科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the expression of homocysteine in serum of patients with common malignant tumor,and initially investigate the possibility of serum homocysteine as cancer biomarker.Methods Expression levels of homocysteine and caner biomarkers (CEA,AFP,CA125,CA199) in serum of 180 patients with established malignant tumor and 30 healthy controls (control) were measured,the results of homocysteine were compared with that of the cancer biomarkers based on the cutoff value used in clinic.Results The expression levels of homocysteine was significantly higher in patients with malignant tumor than in controls [(13.89 ± 4.95) μmol/L-(21.40 ± 9.38) μ mol/L vs (11.40 ± 3.13) μmol/L,P ＜ 0.05)].Conclusions The positive predictive rate of homocysteine is higher than the four kind of cancer biomarkers in lung cancer,breast cancer,esophageal cancer.The increase of homocysteine in tumors may be universal,and Homocysteine may be used as cancer biomarker in lung cancer,breast cancer and esophageal cancer.