Clinical significance of determination of 3 tumor markers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid

    HUANG Fang, WANG Xiangª²Ling, YIN Binª²Xia, ZHAN Shuª²Qing

    Department of Clinical Laboratories, Second Hospital of Xian Jiaotong University, Xi¬ðan 710004 China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the clinical value of 3 tumor markers [carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratinª²19ª²fragments (CYFRA21ª²1) and tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS)] in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in patients with lung cancer. METHODS: The levels of CEA, CYFRA21ª²1 and TPS in serum and BALF were measured in 62 patients with lung cancer and 36 patients with benign lung disease by electrochemiluminescence (Elecys2010) and ELISA respectively. RESULTS: The levels of the 3 tumor markers measured in BALF were much higher in lung cancer group than that in benign lung disease group (P<0.05) and they were higher in patients in stage III and IV than those in stage I and II. The tumor markers increased to different degrees among the patients in various pathological classifications. It was also found that the levels of these tumor markers were higher and more sensitive in BALF than those in serum, especially in TPS. CONCLUSION: The measurement of the tumor markers in BALF is of more significant value than the measurement in serum, which helps the early diagnosis, pathological classification and prognosis evaluation of lung cancer. ......