[Expression and clinical significance of ADAM8 and CEA in serum of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.].

BACKGROUND

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, whose mortality is at the first place in all malignant tumors. This study is to investigate the diagnostic value of ADAM8 and CEA in serum of non-small cell lung cancer patients.

METHODS

The serum levels of ADAM8 were assayed by ELISA in 62 NSCLC patients, 27 benign palmonary lesions and 32 healthy subjects as control. The serum level of CEA were assayed by radioimmunoassay.

RESULTS

The serum level of ADAM8 and CEA in group of NSCLC were both remarkably higher than those in lung benign lesions and normal controls (P <0.01), without significant difference between benign palmonary lesions and normal controls (P >0.05). There was no significant difference between adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in serum ADAM8 level (P >0.05). The serum level of CEA in adenocarcinoma were significantly higher than that in squamous cell carcinoma (P <0.05). The serum level of ADAM8 and CEA in NSCLC with stages III-IV were both remarkably higher than those with stages I-II (P <0.01). The level of ADAM8 and CEA in NSCLC with lymph node metastasis positive were both higher than those of negative (P <0.01). The diagnostic sensitivity of ADAM8 and CEA for NSCLC was 77.4% and 71.0% respectively, and the specificity was 90.6% and 84.4% respectively. The combined detection of ADAM8 and CEA could improve the sensitivity to 91.9%, but the specificity decreased to 75.0%.

CONCLUSIONS

The overexpression of ADAM8 in serum of NSCLC patients indicates that ADAM8 is related to the development of NSCLC; Combined detection of ADAM8 and CEA is helpful for the diagnosis of NSCLC.