Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov;9(22):1673.
doi: 10.21037/atm-21-5357.

The role of autoantibody detection in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer

Yun Wang  1 , Yang Jiao  2 , Cui-Min Ding  1 , Wu-Zhuang Sun  3
Affiliations

The role of autoantibody detection in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer

Yun Wang et al. Ann Transl Med. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Previously, the clinical value of seven autoantibodies (p53, PGP9.5, SOX2, GAGE7, GBU4-5, MAGEA1, and CAGE) has been surveyed in our pilot observation and other published studies. Herein, we aimed to further investigate the role of these autoantibodies in the diagnosis and staging of LC.

Methods: We included a total of 135 individuals, who were divided into a Lung cancer (LC) group and a control group according to the final diagnosis. Seven autoantibody detection kits were used (ELISA method) for the expression measurement. The patients' demographics information (e.g., age, gender, and smoking history) were also documented.

Results: Among the seven types of autoantibodies, only P53 and GBU4-5 were significantly increased in the LC group compared to the controls. Also, the P53 autoantibody was markedly different among the various subtype groups. Meanwhile, the GBU4-5 level was significantly higher in the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients compared to patients with adenocarcinoma (ADC). Autoantibodies against PGP9.5, SOX2, GBU4-5, and CAGE were found to be associated with stages. Their expressions were notably higher in the advanced stage (IV) versus early stages (I-II). Using logistic regression, the outcomes of LC prediction and stage prediction showed that the area under curve (AUCs) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were 0.743 and 0.798, respectively.

Conclusions: In summary, our study confirmed the diagnostic value of tumor-associated autoantibodies, which may be useful as latent tumor markers to facilitate the detection of early LC. Single autoantibody testing is not yet sufficient in LC cancer screening, and the combined detection of autoantibodies can improve the sensitivity of detection compared with single antibody detection, especially for P53, PGP9.5, SOX2, GBU4-5, and CAGE autoantibodies.

Keywords: Autoantibody; diagnosis; lung cancer (LC); staging; tumor-associated antigens (TAAs).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://dx.doi.org/10.21037/atm-21-5357). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The ROC curve of lung cancer prediction using LCprediction and the plasma levels of autoantibodies. ROC, receiver operating characteristic; AUC, area under the ROC curve.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The ROC curve of advanced lung cancer prediction using Advprediction and the plasma levels of autoantibodies. ROC, receiver operating characteristic; AUC, area under the ROC curve.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2018. CA Cancer J Clin 2018;68:7-30. 10.3322/caac.21442 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Molinier O, Goupil F, Debieuvre D, et al. Five-year survival and prognostic factors according to histology in 6101 non-small-cell lung cancer patients. Respir Med Res 2020;77:46-54. 10.1016/j.resmer.2019.10.001 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Butnor KJ. Controversies and challenges in the histologic subtyping of lung adenocarcinoma. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2020;9:839-46. 10.21037/tlcr.2019.12.30 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chapman CJ, Thorpe AJ, Murray A, et al. Immunobiomarkers in small cell lung cancer: potential early cancer signals. Clin Cancer Res 2011;17:1474-80. 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-10-1363 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mizukami M, Hanagiri T, Baba T, et al. Identification of tumor associated antigens recognized by IgG from tumor-infiltrating B cells of lung cancer: correlation between Ab titer of the patient's sera and the clinical course. Cancer Sci 2005;96:882-8. 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2005.00119.x - DOI - PMC - PubMed