Circulating Levels of L1-cell Adhesion Molecule as a Serum Biomarker for Early Detection of Gastric Cancer and Esophagogastric Junction Adenocarcinoma.

Background: Low serum L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) has been found in several malignant tumors. Here, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic potential for serum L1CAM in patients with gastric cancers (GC) and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EJA). Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was carried out to detect L1CAM level in sera of 148 GC patients, 59 EJA patients and 148 healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was employed to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. Results: The concentrations of serum L1CAM were significantly lower in GC and EJA than those in healthy controls (P<0.001). Detection of L1CAM provided a sensitivity of 83.1%, a specificity of 62.2%, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.769 (95% CI: 0.715-0.823) in diagnosing GC, and a sensitivity of 66.1%, a specificity of 62.2%, and an AUC of 0.672 (95% CI: 0.590-0.755) in diagnosing EJA. Similar results were observed in the diagnosis of early-stage GC (0.681 (95%CI: 0.596-0.766)) and early-stage EJA (0.674 (95%CI: 0.528-0.820)). Analysis of clinical data showed that the levels of L1CAM were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis in GC (P<0.05). Conclusions: Our study showed that serum L1CAM might be a diagnostic biomarker for GC and EJA.