Value of exhaled hydrogen sulfide in early diagnosis of esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma.

Esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EJA) has increased in recent years, and it exhibits a poor prognosis and a short survival period for patients. Hydrogen sulfide (HS) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cancer and has been studied as a diagnostic factor in some tumor diseases. However, few studies have explored the diagnostic value of HS for EJA. In the present study, a total of 56 patients with early-stage EJA were enrolled while 57 healthy individuals were selected as the healthy control group. Clinical features were recorded, and exhaled HS and blood samples were collected from both groups. Exhaled HS and serum interleukin-8 (IL-8) expression levels were detected in both groups. The correlation between exhaled HS and serum IL-8 levels was analyzed using Pearson's correlation method. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of exhaled HS combined with IL-8 detection in EJA. The results showed that patients with EJA exhaled more HS than healthy individuals. In addition, exhaled HS was positively correlated with increased IL-8 expression. The ROC curve revealed that the exhaled HS test had an acceptable diagnostic effect and could be used to diagnose EJA. The increase in HS exhaled by patients with EJA indicated that HS may be related to the occurrence and development of EJA; however, the mechanism needs to be further explored. Collectively, it was determined in the present study that exhaled HS was significantly higher in patients with early-stage EJA than in healthy controls and combined diagnosis with patient serum IL-8 could improve diagnostic accuracy, which has potential diagnostic value for early diagnosis and screening of EJA.