Pentraxin-3 is a novel biomarker of lung carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to validate the performance of three new candidate lung cancer biomarkers, pentraxin-3 (PTX3), human kallikrein 11 (KLK11), and progranulin.


METHODS
We analyzed by commercial ELISA, and with a blinded protocol, 422 samples from 203 patients with lung carcinoma, 180 individuals with high risk for lung cancer (heavy smokers), and 43 individuals with cancers other than lung. All samples were obtained from the Early Detection Research Network (Reference set A).


RESULTS
We found that progranulin and KLK11 were not informative lung cancer biomarkers, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC; ROC), close to 0.50. However, PTX3 was an informative lung cancer biomarker, with considerable ability to separate lung cancer patients from high-risk controls. At 90% and 80% specificity, the sensitivities versus the high-risk control group were 37% and 48%, respectively. The discriminatory ability of PTX3 was about the same with all major subtypes and histotypes of lung cancer. The AUC of the ROC curves increased according to the disease stage, from 0.64 (stage I) to 0.72 (stage IV).


CONCLUSIONS
PTX3, but not KLK11 or progranulin, is a new serum biomarker for lung carcinoma. Its diagnostic sensitivity and specificity is similar to other clinically used lung cancer biomarkers. More studies are needed to establish if PTX3 has clinical utility for lung cancer diagnosis and management.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ediamandis@mtsinai.on.ca
Eleftherios P
EP
Diamandis
Lee
L
Goodglick
Chris
C
Planque
Mark D
MD
Thornquist
D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000097:blood; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000077153:Progranulins; D012372:ROC Curve; D012307:Risk Factors; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000097:blood; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component / Q000032:analysis*; D012907:Smoking; D000099153:Pentraxins
D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D000077153:Progranulins; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component; D000099153:Pentraxins; C492314:GRN protein, human; C114880:trypsin-like serine protease