الفهرس 
LUNG CANCEROnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
L
ung cancer represents a major health problem world wide as it is the most frequent cause of death from cancer among men and is the third leading cause of cancer mortality among women (Hammerschmidt and Wirtz, 2009). The five-year survival rate is as low as 15%; this is attributed to the fact that only 30% of lung cancer patients present at an early stage of the disease (Mark and Leschben, 2009).
Bronchoscopy guided-biopsy is considered the most applied diagnostic procedure of lung carcinoma that allows direct assessment of tumor (Haslett et al., 2000). However, the technique is considered invasive and peripheral lesions are not accessible by it. Many tumor markers have been studied in lung cancer however; their role in the diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer is still unclear and under research (Blasberg et al., 2010).
In this regards, the aim of our study was to assess the value of serum pentraxin assay as a biomarker in patients with lung carcinoma.
The study was conducted on sixty (60) patients diagnosed with lung carcinoma at different stages of the disease,who attended at the Chest and Oncology Departments of Ain Shams University Hospitals. Patients were classified into subgroup1 which included 9 patients with localized lung cancer; and subgroup2 which included 51 patients with metastatic lung cancer. In addition, 20 apparently healthy heavy smoker subjects served as control group.
All patients in this study were subjected to full history taking, thorough clinical examination, routine laboratory investigations including CBC and ESR. In addition to radiological investigations including Chest X-ray, CT-scan and bone scan (if metastasis is suspected) and histopathological examination of broncoscopy or ultrasound guided biopsy for patients, group only. Furthermore, serum pentraxin3 and CEA assay was performed for both patients and control subjects by ELISA technique.
In the present study, serum level of pentraxin was significantly higher in patients’ group as compared to control group (p<0.01).
Serum pentraxin was significantly higher in patients with metastases when compared to patients with localized non-metastasizing lung cancer (p<0.01). However no significant difference was found between both sexes and between different histopathological types regarding serum pentraxin level (p>0.05 for both parameters).
Correlation study revealed no correlation between serum pentraxin and age (p>0.05).
Diagnostic performance of pentraxin as a predictor of development of lung cancer showed that the best cutoff was 7 ng/mL with a diagnostic sensitivity of 85%, specificity of 85%, PPV of 94.4%, NPV of 65.4%
In conclusion, pentraxin3 can be used as a promising non-invasive tumor marker for early diagnosis of lung cancer and for staging of the tumor hence improving disease prognosis.