This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Autoantibodies may help detect early-stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Physicians may be able to accurately diagnose the eighth most common malignant disease and the sixth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide in its early stages by measuring autoantibody response to multiple tumor-associated antigens, a study found.
“An autoantibody blood test, which is noninvasive, cost effective and has no side effects, may act as an aid to diagnose ESCC [esophageal squamous cell carcinoma], especially in the early-stage ESCC,” the researchers wrote.
The study evaluated data of 388 patients with ESCC and 125 controls in a test cohort before following up with 237 patients with ESCC and 134 additional controls in a validation cohort. The researchers used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to measure autoantibody levels against six tumor-associated antigens: p53, NY-ESO-1, matrix metalloproteinase-7, heat shock protein 70, peroxiredoxin VI and BMI1 polycomb ring finger oncogene.
The study determined the presence of autoantibodies to at least one of the antigens demonstrated a 57% sensitivity (95% CI, 52–62%) and a 95% specificity (95% CI, 89–98%) in the test cohort and a 51% sensitivity (95% CI, 45–57%) and 96% specificity (95% CI, 91–99%) in the validation cohort.
Furthermore, measuring the autoantibody panel allowed researchers to differentiate patients with early-stage ESCC from healthy controls with a 45% sensitivity (95% CI, 32–59%) and 95% specificity (95% CI, 89–98%) in the test cohort and with a 46% sensitivity (95% CI, 35–58%) and 96% specificity (95% CI, 91–99%) in the validation cohort.
Subdividing patients based on age, gender, smoking status, tumor size and site, depth of tumor invasion, histological grade, lymph node status, TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) stage or early-stage and late-stage groups had no significant impact on either cohort.
“We believe that the autoantibody panel has diagnostic potential for ESCC because its value in the test cohort was confirmed in an independent validation cohort,” the researchers concluded.
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts