Serum detection of thymidine kinase 1 as a means of early detection of lung cancer.
BACKGROUND
Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is a biomarker elevated in several malignancies, including lung cancer. Up-regulation of TK1 is an early event in carcinogenesis and therefore a target for early cancer detection. We have developed a novel Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to detect TK1 in serum.


METHODS
Forty patients with pulmonary nodules and 18 healthy individuals had their serum collected prior to surgery. All samples were analyzed using a radioassay and ELISA.


RESULTS
TK1 was significantly elevated in all lung cancer samples. Patients with stage I (n=16) and stage II (n=17) disease had significantly higher TK1 levels than controls. The area under the curve was 0.792, using 4.9 nM TK1 as cut-off, for early-stage lung cancer. The sensitivity and specificity were 75.0 and 83.3, respectively. TK1 concentration was a more sensitive and accurate indicator of lung cancer than TK1 activity.


CONCLUSIONS
TK1 is significantly elevated in serum from patients with stage I and stage II lung cancer as measured using the established ELISA. This novel TK1 ELISA is both sensitive and specific for the detection of early-stage and advanced lung cancer, and therefore may be an important tool in the management of this disease.
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, U.S.A. kim_oneill@byu.edu.
Melissa M
MM
Alegre
Michael J
MJ
Weyant
Daine T
DT
Bennett
Jessica A
JA
Yu
Madison K
MK
Ramsden
Atif
A
Elnaggar
Richard A
RA
Robison
Kim L
KL
O'Neill
D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000097:blood*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D013937:Thymidine Kinase; C092717:thymidine kinase 1
Early detection; TK1; lung cancer; operable lung cancer; thymidine kinase 1