APPLICATION STUDY OF CEA, CA199, CA125 AND CA153 COMBINED DETECTION IN DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF ESOPHAGEAL CANCER

Jun Lu^1#, Dan Chen^{2, #}, Xinsheng Han³, Juan Qin¹, Jiayong Zhang¹, Jiaxiu Deng¹, Rongqiang Pan^{1, *}

¹Department of Oncology, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Institute of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong 637000, Sichuan Province, China - ²Department of Medicine, Wufeng Community Health Service Center, Shunqing District, Nanchong 637000, Sichuan Province, China - ³Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Institute of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong 637000, Sichuan Province, China

Objective: To investigate the application value of combined detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) and carbohydrate antigen 153 (CA153) in differential diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

Methods: A total of 80 patients with esophageal cancer who were diagnosed and treated in our hospital from January 2021 to May 2022 were selected as the esophageal cancer group, 70 patients with benign esophageal tumors were selected as the esophageal benign tumor group, and 50 healthy people who underwent physical examination in our hospital were selected as healthy control group. The serum levels of CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 were compared among the three groups, and the positive rates of CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 in detecting esophageal cancer were analyzed. In addition, Spearman’s method was used to analyze the relationship between indexes CEA, CA199, CA125, CA153 and esophageal cancer. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was used to analyze the application value of serum CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 alone and in combination in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer. 

Results: The levels of serum CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 in esophageal benign tumor group were strikingly higher than those in the healthy control group (p<0.05). The levels of serum CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 in esophageal cancer group were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group and esophageal benign tumor group (p<0.05). The positive rates of CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 in detecting esophageal cancer were 72.50%, 70.00%, 72.50% and 73.75%, respectively. There was a positive correlation between CEA, CA199, CA125, CA153 and esophageal cancer (r=0.394, 0.432, 0.335, 0.457, all p<0.05). The AUC values of CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 alone and in combination in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer were 0.810, 0.739, 0.760, 0.851 and 0.944, respectively. 

Conclusions: Our work suggests that CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 are highly expressed in patients with esophageal cancer, and their level changes are closely related to the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer. The combined detection of CEA, CA199, CA125 and CA153 has a higher clinical application value in the differential diagnosis of esophageal cancer.