Kemal Yasemi N, Demirag Guzi N, Bedir Abdulkeri M, Tomak Leman, Derebey Murat, Erdem Di Lek, Gör Ufuk, Yücel Idris
Department of Medical Oncology, Samsun Training and Research Hospital, Samsun 55100, Turkey.
Department of Medical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun 55270, Turkey.
Mol Clin Oncol. 2017 Sep;7(3):481-485. doi: 10.3892/mco.2017.1332. Epub 2017 Jul 19.
Tumour markers are widely used for the diagnosis, staging and monitoring of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in clinical practice. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) are the most frequently used biomarkers in CRC patients. A number of studies have recently investigated the presence of human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) overexpression in certain cancer types. Its significance in ovarian and endometrial cancer has been well-demonstrated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the significance of serum HE4 levels in CRC patients. A total of 46 newly diagnosed CRC patients and 36 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects were included in the study. The concentrations of CEA and CA19-9 were also determined and compared according to HE4 levels. HE4 positivity was determined in 13 of the 46 cases (28.3%) in the CRC group, but no HE4-positive subjects were identified in the control group (0%; P=0.009). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for HE4 positivity was 0.641 (95% CI: 0.523-0.760). HE4 was statistically significantly positive in patients with stage III-IV disease and in those with high CA 19-9 levels (all P<0.01). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate HE4 expression in CRC patients, and the findings suggest that it may be a useful biomarker, particularly in stage III-IV patients.
肿瘤标志物在临床实践中被广泛用于结直肠癌（CRC）患者的诊断、分期和监测。癌胚抗原（CEA）和糖类抗原19-9（CA19-9）是CRC患者中最常用的生物标志物。最近有多项研究调查了人类附睾蛋白4（HE4）在某些癌症类型中的过表达情况。其在卵巢癌和子宫内膜癌中的意义已得到充分证实。本研究的目的是评估血清HE4水平在CRC患者中的意义。该研究共纳入了46例新诊断的CRC患者和36例年龄及性别匹配的健康受试者。还根据HE4水平测定并比较了CEA和CA19-9的浓度。CRC组46例中有13例（28.3%）HE4呈阳性，但对照组未发现HE4阳性受试者（0%；P = 0.009）。HE4阳性的受试者工作特征曲线下面积为0.641（95%CI：0.523 - 0.760）。HE4在III-IV期疾病患者和CA 19-9水平高的患者中在统计学上显著呈阳性（所有P<0.01）。据我们所知，这是第一项研究CRC患者中HE4表达的研究，研究结果表明它可能是一种有用的生物标志物，特别是在III-IV期患者中。
