Prognostic Significance of a Tumor Marker Index Based on Preoperative Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen and Krebs von den Lungen-6 Levels in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

<br /> <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Background: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">We retrospectively analysed the prognostic significance of a tumor marker index (TMI) based on </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) levels in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Materials and Methods: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">We enrolled 176 NSCLC patients who had preoperative serum CEA and KL-6 level measurements and had undergone curative surgery between 2009 and 2011. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Results: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">5-year disease-specific survival of patients with high serum CEA levels was significantly poorer compared with that of patients with normal levels. The value for patients with high serum KL-6 levels was also poor. Patients with both normal </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">serum CEA and KL-6 levels had a favourable prognosis, whereas those with both high serum CEA and KL-6 levels </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">had a poor outcome. The5-year disease-specific survival rate was 82.9% for patients in the low TMI group compared to 47.5% in the high TMI group (p<0.01). Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed prognostic significance </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">for TMI. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusions: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">TMI based on preoperative serum CEA and KL-6 levels might be useful for the prediction of the prognosis of NSCLC patients. </span></span>