Work

Comparison of the clinical usefulness of CXCL-8 and common clinical tumor markers for esophageal cancer diagnosis

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Background This study aimed to investigate serum CXC motif chemokine ligand 8 (CXCL-8) as a potential biomarker for diagnosing esophageal cancer (EC). Methods Patients diagnosed with EC ( n = 141) were enrolled at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, from July through December 2023. Sixty cases were early esophageal cancer (EEC), whereas 81 were advanced (AEC) based on diagnostic criteria. Healthy volunteers ( n = 75) were recruited as controls. Serum CXCL-8 levels were quantified using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (Cyfra211), and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) were assessed using a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Clinical and pathological attributes of patients with EC were documented and analyzed. Diagnostic efficacies of CXCL-8, CEA, Cyfra211, and SCC for EC were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results Serum concentrations of CXCL-8, CEA, Cyfra211, and SCC were significantly higher in patients with EC than in controls ( P < 0.05). In the EC group, areas under the curves (AUCs) for CXCL-8, CEA, Cyfra211, and SCC were 0.906, 0.707, 0.705, and 0.797, respectively. The combined application of CXCL-8+CEA, CXCL-8+Cyfra211, and CXCL-8+SCC yielded AUCs of 0.931, 0.940, and 0.950, respectively, and was significantly higher than that of the combination of CEA+Cyfra211+SCC (0.854). In EEC, the diagnostic performance of CXCL-8 was similar to that in the EC group. The sensitivity of CXCL-8 was greater than that of CEA, Cyfra211, and SCC alone, and the combination of the three markers ( P < 0.05). Conclusions CXCL-8 could be used to distinguish patients with EC from healthy controls, including EEC.

Source: PeerJ

DOI: 10.7717/peerj.20079