title: Clinical usefulness of CYFRA assay in diagnosing lung cancer: measurement of serum cytokeratin fragment.
abstract: We evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of measurement of the soluble cytokeratin 19 fragment, a new tumor marker, in 391 patients with lung cancer and in 424 patients with benign lung diseases. Serum concentrations of cytokeratin 19 fragment were measured by a sandwich ELISA (CYFRA). The cut-off value was defined as 3.5 ng/ml, which is associated with a specificity of 85% for benign lung diseases. CYFRA had a high sensitivity (57.5%) in all subjects with lung carcinoma, and had a higher sensitivity for squamous cell carcinoma (73.1%, n = 141) than squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen (61.0%). CYFRA was associated with a relatively high sensitivity (42.1%) in early-stage squamous cell carcinoma (stage I, based on the classification of the Japan Lung Cancer Society), but the CYFRA titer was higher in advanced squamous cell carcinoma than in early-stage squamous cell carcinoma. Our findings suggest that CYFRA is potentially useful for diagnosis and monitoring of lung carcinoma, especially for squamous cell carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugama
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ohkubo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukuoka
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ohkawa
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000097:blood*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000097:blood*; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D007633:Keratins