Abstract:
Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of high resolution CT (HRCT) scan combined with various serum tumor markers in different pathological types of early lung cancer.
Methods The clinical data of 164 patients with early lung cancer (lung cancer group) admitted to Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University from August 2019 to October 2021 were analyzed retrospectively, and 78 healthy people who participated in physical examination at the same time were selected as the control group. There were 94 males and 70 females in the lung cancer group, aged (52.4±3.6) years. Among them, 90 cases were adenocarcinoma, 62 cases were squamous cell carcinoma, and 12 cases were small cell carcinoma. All the patients were confirmed by histopathological examination. The serum levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cyto-keratin 19 fragment antigen 21-1, squamous cell carcinoma antigen and carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) were compared between the two groups and different pathological types of patients. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of HRCT scan, five tumor markers and HRCT scan + five tumor markers in the diagnosis of lung cancer were calculated based on the results of histopathological examination as the gold standard. The measurement data were compared by two independent samples t-test, and the counting data were compared by Chi-square test.
Results The levels of serum tumor markers in lung cancer group were higher than those in control group (t=8.107–30.460; all P<0.001). The serum CEA and CA125 levels in patients with adenocarcinoma were higher than those in squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma (t=12.712–4.326; all P<0.001). No significant difference was found in serum CEA and CA125 levels between patients with squamous cell carcinoma and those with small cell carcinoma (t=1.342, 1.256; both P>0.05). The NSE level in patients with adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma was lower than that in patients with small cell carcinoma (t=10.342–11.534; all P<0.001). The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of HRCT scann + five tumor markers in the diagnosis of lung cancer were 95.62%, 96.43% and 98.65% respectively, which were higher than any single diagnosis (χ2=55.823, 48.652, 62.718; all P<0.001).
Conclusion HRCT scan combined with detection of various serum tumor markers can improve the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of early lung cancer diagnosis, and this method has high clinical value in the diagnosis of lung cancer.