Aged ; Area Under Curve ; Biomarkers, Tumor/blood* ; Case-Control Studies ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Heparin-binding EGF-like Growth Factor/blood* ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Neoplasm Staging ; Predictive Value of Tests ; ROC Curve ; Stomach Neoplasms/blood* ; Stomach Neoplasms/pathology
Keywords
Biomarker ; Diagnostic ; Gastric cancer ; Prognostic ; Soluble heparin-binding EGF-like growth facto
Abstract
AIM: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of soluble heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (sHB-EGF) as a serum biomarker for gastric cancer (GC).
METHODS: Serum sHB-EGF levels were measured by a commercially available human HB-EGF ELISA Kit and compared among 60 normal controls, 30 high-risk patients, 37 early gastric cancer (EGC), and 30 advanced gastric cancer (AGC) through ANOVA test. Correlations between serum sHB-EGF and clinicopathological features of GC were analyzed through Spearman's correlation. The diagnostic performance of serum sHB-EGF for GC was evaluated through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and logistic regression analysis.
RESULTS: Serum sHB-EGF levels were significantly higher in AGC group (314.4±127.5 pg/mL) than EGC (165.3±123.2 pg/mL), high-risk (98.7±67.3 pg/mL), and control (94.7±83.6 pg/mL) groups (post-hoc Bonferroni, all P<0.001), respectively. Serum sHB-EGF levels were also significantly higher in EGC group than high-risk (P=0.049) and control (P=0.006) groups. Clinicopathologically, serum sHB-EGF levels closely correlated with depth of invasion (T-stage, γs=0.669, P<0.001), lymph node metastasis (N-stage, γs=0.407, P=0.001), and distant metastasis (M-stage, γs=0.261, P=0.030). ROC curve and logistic regression analysis demonstrated a remarkable diagnostic potential of serum sHB-EGF.
CONCLUSION: Serum sHB-EGF is closely correlated with advanced stage GC and can be a promising serological biomarker for GC.