title: Megakaryocyte potentiating factor as a tumor marker of malignant pleural mesothelioma: evaluation in comparison with mesothelin.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An early and reliable blood test is one deficiency in diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Megakaryocyte potentiating factor (MPF) and mesothelin variants (MSLN), members of the mesothelin gene family, have been studied as candidate serum markers for MPM. We developed a novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system to compare the diagnostic efficacy of MPF and MSLN in MPM and control groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  MPF and MSLN were assayed with ELISA in 27 consecutive MPM patients and 129 controls including patients with lung cancer and asymptomatic asbestos-exposed subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistically significant elevation of serum MPF and MSLN levels was noted in MPM patients in comparison with every control group. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated for differentiation of MPM and lung cancer, healthy asbestos-exposed subjects, and healthy adults. While the AUC for serum MPF was 0.879, cut-off=19.1ng/ml (sensitivity=74.1%, specificity=90.4%), the AUC for serum MSLN was 0.713, cut-off=93.5ng/ml (sensitivity=59.3%, specificity=86.2%). Comparison between AUC for MPF and MSLN values shows that MPF is significantly superior to MSLN (p=0.025). Finally, there was a significant correlation between MPF and MSLN values for MPM (Pearson's correlation coefficient=0.77; p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that diagnostic value of MPF for MPM was better than that of MSLN although both markers showed almost equal specificity for MPM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Allergy, and Rheumatic Diseases, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Kota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iwahori
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Osaki
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Serada
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Hidekazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Yoshiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: Akihito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.forename: Hironobu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirashima
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.forename: Isao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawase
authors.forename: Tetsuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Naka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; D006801:Humans; D047468:Immunoprecipitation; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D000090204:Mesothelin; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000097:blood*; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000097:blood; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; C000715527:MSLN protein, human; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D000090204:Mesothelin