The diagnostic value of circulating stanniocalcin-1 mRNA in non-small cell lung cancer.

摘要

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have suggested that the aberrant expression of Stanniocalcin-1 (STC1) occurs in tumor cells. In this study, we explored whether the circulating STC1 mRNA is a promising biomarker in the peripheral blood in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: The level of circulating STC1 mRNA was determined with a sensitive quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR assay. and the data were analyzed by the statistical methods of one-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon U-Test, and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. RESULTS: The level of circulating STC1 mRNA in patients with NSCLC was significantly higher than in patients with benign pulmonary disease (P < 0.001) or healthy volunteers (P < 0.001). Higher levels of circulating STC1 mRNA were associated with more advanced tumor stages and histological subtypes. Using a cutoff of 0.055, the sensitivity and specificity of STC1 mRNA levels to differentiate between patients with NSCLC and patients with benign pulmonary diseases was 66.7 and 90.9%, and it was 63.7 and 99.8% for patients with NSCLC and healthy volunteers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support our hypothesis that circulating STC1 mRNA is a promising biomarker in the peripheral blood.