Abstract
Background: To investigate the clinical value of HE4 detection in the diagnosis of lung cancer and the clinical significance of combined detection with CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1. Methods: 90 cases of lung cancer, 30 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, 30 cases of pneumonia and 30 cases of health physical examination were selected. The levels of serum HE4, CYFRA21-1, CEA and NSE were detected by electrochemiluminescence method. Statistical analysis was performed to observe the sensitivity and specificity. Results: The levels of serum HE4, CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 in lung cancer group were significantly higher than those in tuberculosis group and health physical examination group. There was no significant difference in the levels of HE4, CEA and NSE between the lung cancer group and the pneumonia group, the difference of CYFRA21-1 level was statistically significant (p<0.05).With health physical examination group as normal controls, the sensitivity and specificity of combined detection of HE4, CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 in the diagnosis of lung cancer were 82.2% and 90.0%,and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.907, followed by HE4 (0.867), CYFRA21-1 (0.787), CEA (0.752) and NSE (0.747). Conclusion: HE4 can be used as a serological marker for the diagnosis of lung cancer. The combined detection of HE4, CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 can improve the diagnosis of lung cancer. Serum HE4 levels are highly specific in distinguishing between lung cancer patients and normal population, and are equivalent to CYFRA21-1; but they are less specific than CYFRA21-1 in distinguishing lung cancer patients from pneumonia patients.