A study on the measuremet of DKK-1 in the serum of esophageal cancer patients / 国际肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the expression of DKK-1 and its clinical value in patients with e-sophageal cancer. Methods The levels of serum DKK-1 were measured by sandwich enzyme linked immu-nosorbent assay(ELISA) in 80 patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer and in 35 healthy subjects. The sensitivities of serum DKK-1, CEA and CYFRA21-1 in the patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer were calculated and analyzed to compare their values in diagnosis of esophageal cancer. Results The serum DKK- 1 levels in patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer were significantly higher than those of healthy subjects(P<0.05). According to the highest value of medicine reference of DKK- 1 (14. 54 ng/ml), its sensitivity and specificity were 66. 25% and 82. 86% respectively; There was a significant difference between the sensitivity of DKK-1 in patients with esophageal squamons cell cancer(66. 25%) and that in healthy subjects(17.14%) (P<0.05). The sensitivitis of serum DKK- 1 in patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer were associated with tumor size, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis(P <0.05),but not associated with gender,age and differentiation grade(P>0.05). And the sensitivity of DKK-1 (66. 25%) was significantly higher than that of CEA, CYFRA21-1 (39. 44% ,25. 35%, P <0. 01). Conclusion DKK-1 played a very important role in the growth and metastasis of esophageal cancer and may be a new tumor marker or an important index in the diagno-sis of esophageal cancer.