Study on the application value of combined detection of multiple tumor markers in lung cancer classification diagnosis

Background: To evaluate the value of six tumor markers including squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), glycoconjugate antigen 125 (CA125), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), along with gastrin-releasing peptide precursor (ProGRP) in the diagnosis and pathological staging of lung cancer (LC) alone or in combination. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 300 patients of which 62 cases were diagnosed as small cell lung cancer (SCLC), 105 adenocarcinoma (LUAD), 41 squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) and 92 large cell lung cancer (LCLC) by histopathology. Another 364 patients with benign lung disease in the same period were chosen for the benign lung disease group. Results: The detection results of 6 tumor markers in serum of LC, SCCA, NSE and ProGP patients with different pathological types were higher compared with lung benign lesions group (P<0.01). LC can be separated into SCLC along with non-Small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by NSE+ProGRP combination. The detection rate of lung squamous cell carcinoma by SCCA+ cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1) was higher than that by CEA+CA125 combination for adenocarcinoma. The combined determination of NSE and ProGRP was highly sensitive to SCLC. In NSCLC, the combined detection of SCC-Ag and CYFRA21-1 showed high sensitivity to LUSC. CEA+CA125 combined detection was highly sensitive to LUAD. Conclusion: The combined determination of NSE and ProGRP was highly sensitive to SCLC. CEA+CA125 combined detection was highly sensitive to LUAD, and SCCA+CYFR21-1+CEA+CA125 was the best combined detection analysis of multiple indexes.