• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5779-5785
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• 2015

The present study was designed to investigate cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) antibodies in hamster serum. Hamster CCA cell lines were processed using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. A candidate biomarker was confirmed by immunoprecipitation and western blot, and was further analyzed using ELISA and sera from normal control hamsters, hamsters with opisthorchiasis and hamsters with various stages of CCA, as well as from CCA patients and healthy individuals. One candidate marker was identified as $HSP90{\alpha}$, as indicated by a high level of anti-$HSP90{\alpha}$ in hamster CCA sera. It was found that the levels of anti-$HSP90{\alpha}$ were specifically elevated in the sera of hamsters with CCA compared with other groups and progressively increased with the clinical stage. At the cut-off point of 0.4850 on the receiver operating characteristic curve, anti-$HSP90{\alpha}$ could discriminate CCA from healthy control groups with a sensitivity of 76.2%, specificity of 71.4% and total accuracy 75.5%. In the present study, we have shown that anti-$HSP90{\alpha}$ may be a potential useful serum biomarker to discriminate CCA cases from healthy persons.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4317-4321
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• 2015

Background: Prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer are routinely investigated in the primary tumors to guide further management. However, it is proposed that the expression may change during the disease progression, and may result in a different immune profile in the metastatic nodes. This work aimed to investigate the expression of breast prognostic biomarkers in primary tumors and in its axillary nodal metastasis, to estimate the possible discordant expression. Materials and Methods: 60 paired primary and axillary nodal metastasis samples were collected from patients with primary breast cancer with positive nodal deposits, diagnosed at the Maadi Military Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, during the year 2013. ER, PR and HER2 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in all samples Results: 48.3% of the included cases showed concordant results for both ER and PR receptors between the primary tumor and its nodal metastasis while 51.7% showed discordant results and the discordance level was statistically significant. On the other hand, 70% of the cases showed concordant Her2 results between the primary tumors and the nodal deposits, 30% showed discordant results and the difference was significant. Conclusions: The study indicated that the discordance in ER and PR receptor expression between the primary breast tumor and their nodal metastasis may be significant. The possible switch in the biomarker status during the disease progression is worth noting and may change the patient therapeutic planning. So, whether the treatment selection should be based on biomarkers in the lymph node is a topic for further studies and future clinical trials.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.75-90
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• 2010

Biomarkers are likely to be important in the study of various pulmonary diseases for many reasons. Research efforts in developing biomarkers and surrogate endpoints of lung diseases have resulted in the identification of new risk factors and novel drug targets, as well as the establishment of treatment guidelines. Government agencies, academic research institutions, diagnostic industries, and pharmaceutical companies all recognize the importance of biomarkers in new drug development and advancing therapies to improve public health. In drug development, biomarkers are used to evaluate early signals of efficacy and safety, to select dose, and to identify the target population. Identification of suitable end points not only would help investigators design appropriate clinical trials but would assist clinicians in caring for this patient population. Though the area of pulmonology has received much attention in the past decades, it still lags behind with regard to the development of biomarkers, particularly those of health effects and susceptibility. This review critically summarized several biomarker researches such as Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate End-points (ECLIPSE) study with objectives of identifying the parameters that predict disease progression of COPD, as well as biomarkers that may serve as surrogate end-points.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.53
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• pp.342.1-342.6
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• 2018

We validated the diagnostic performance of a previously developed blood-based 7-protein biomarker panel, $AptoDetect^{TM}$-Lung (Aptamer Sciences Inc., Pohang, Korea) using modified aptamer-based proteomic technology for lung cancer detection. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 200 patients and benign nodule controls, 200 participants were enrolled. In a high-risk population corresponding to ${\geq}55years$ of age and ${\geq}30pack-years$, the diagnostic performance was improved, showing 73.3% sensitivity and 90.5% specificity with an area under the curve of 0.88. $AptoDetect^{TM}$-Lung (Aptamer Sciences Inc.) offers the best validated performance to discriminate NSCLC from benign nodule controls in a high-risk population and could play a complementary role in lung cancer screening.

• Kidney Research and Clinical Practice
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.338-346
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• 2018

Background: The most common cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) in pregnancy is preeclampsia. Serum cystatin C (CysC) is a potential biomarker of early kidney damage as its levels are not disturbed by volume status changes in pregnancy, and serum CysC levels could serve as a replacement for conventionally used creatinine. In this study, we investigated the serum levels of CysC in severe preeclampsia cases and the associations between CysC levels and poor obstetric outcomes. Methods: Our cohort included severe preeclampsia patients with a normal serum creatinine level. Creatinine was measured to calculate estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) based on the Cockcroft and Gault, Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Study (MDRD), and Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equations, while CysC was measured to calculated eGFR based on a CysC-based equation. We then evaluated the correlations between serum CysC level, eGFR, and obstetric outcomes. Results: Twenty-six patients were evaluated of which 38.5% delivered preterm and 30.8% had low-birth weight babies. Unlike creatinine-based eGFR and CysC-based eGFR, serum CysC demonstrate significant negative correlation with gestational age. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that serum CysC is a potential biomarker of preterm delivery with a cut-off serum level of 1.48 mg/L with 80% sensitivity and 75% specificity. Conclusion: GFR estimation using CysC is likely to be inaccurate in pregnancy. However, we found a significant correlation between preterm delivery and serum CysC level. Our results suggest that serum CysC level has the potential to predict preterm delivery in severe preeclampsia patients.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.236-245
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• 2024

Purpose: The prevalence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is increasing with the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. Although NASH has a high risk of progression to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, few studies have reported noninvasive markers for predicting hepatic fibrosis in children. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the diagnostic accuracies of serologic biomarkers and scoring systems for hepatic fibrosis in obese children with NASH. Methods: A total of 96 children were diagnosed with NASH based on liver biopsy findings and divided into two groups according to the degree of liver fibrosis: mild (stage 0-1) or advanced (stage 2-4). Clinical and laboratory parameters and serum levels of hyaluronic acid and type IV collagen were measured. The aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score were calculated. Results: Among the noninvasive markers, only serum type IV collagen level and FIB-4 were significantly different between the two groups. The area under the receiver operating curve of each biomarker and scoring system was 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.70-0.90) for type IV collagen at an optimal cutoff of 148 ng/mL (sensitivity 69.8%, specificity 84.6%), followed by 0.69 (95% CI: 0.57-0.83) for APRI, 0.68 (95% CI: 0.56-0.80) for FIB-4, and 0.65 (95% CI: 0.53-0.77) for hyaluronic acid. Conclusion: Type IV collagen as a single noninvasive serologic biomarker for hepatic fibrosis and FIB-4 as a hepatic fibrosis score are beneficial in predicting advanced hepatic fibrosis and determining proper diagnosis and treatment strategies before fibrosis progresses in obese children with NASH.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.508-518
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• 2024

Objectives: To report a correlation of IL-6 of pancreatic cancer and cancer progression in three pancreatic cancer patients. Method: Three pancreatic cancer patients were monitored for changes in IL-6 levels, tumor markers (CEA, CA19-9), and clinical outcomes over their treatment period. Results: Patient 1's IL-6 levels rose with liver metastasis and tumor progression, coinciding with increases in tumor markers. Patient 2's IL-6 levels remained elevated during chemotherapy, correlating with tumor growth. Patient 3's IL-6 levels spiked prior to cancer progression. Conclusion: Elevated IL-6 levels were observed in advancing pancreatic cancer patients, suggesting IL-6 as a potential biomarker for monitoring cancer progression in pancreatic cancer. Regular IL-6 monitoring could improve prognostic evaluations and treatment strategies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2563-2566
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• 2013

Background: Interleukin-33 (IL-33) has recently been implicated in tumor immunity. The aim of this study was to explore the clinical role of serum IL-33 in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Sera collected from 250 healthy volunteers (HV), 256 patients with benign lung diseases (BLD) and 262 NSCLC cases were subjected to IL-33 ELISA and relationships between serum IL-33 and clinical characteristics were evaluated. Results: Circulating IL-33 levels were higher in the NSCLC group in comparison with the HV and BLD groups (p<0.001). Using a cut-off level 68 pg/ml (95% specificity in the HV group), IL-33 showed a good diagnostic performance for NSCLC. Multivariate survival analysis indicated that serum IL-33 was an independent prognostic factor in the entire NSCLC group [hazards ratio (HR) = 0.64 for low versus high IL-33 levels, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.50-0.82; p<0.001] and in 165 selected patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease receiving chemoradiotherapy or chemotherapy (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.52-0.94; p=0.013). Conclusions: IL-33 is a promising potential diagnostic and prognostic marker in NSCLC, independent of the therapeutic intervention.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2719-2722
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• 2016

Circulatory miR-133a is a marker shared by several types of cancer. In this study we evaluated the feasibility of using miR-133a levels in gastric juice to screen for gastric cancer. A total of 204 samples of gastric juice and mucosa from gastric cancer, atrophic gastritis, gastric ulcer, superficial gastritis and healthy cases were collected by gastroscopy. The results showed that miR-133a levels in gastric juice and carcinoma tissues of patients with gastric cancer were significantly downregulated and positively correlated. Moreover, miR-133a in gastric juice has high operability, high reliability, high sensitivity, high specificity and relative stability, fit for clinical diagnosis of gastric cancer.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.156-161
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• 2017

Transcriptome analysis has been widely used to make biomarker panels to diagnose cancers. In breast cancer, the age of the patient has been known to be associated with clinical features. As clinical transcriptome data have accumulated significantly, we classified all human genes based on age-specific differential expression between normal and breast cancer cells using public data. We retrieved the values for gene expression levels in breast cancer and matched normal cells from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We divided genes into two classes by paired t test without considering age in the first classification. We carried out a secondary classification of genes for each class into eight groups, based on the patterns of the p-values, which were calculated for each of the three age groups we defined. Through this two-step classification, gene expression was eventually grouped into 16 classes. We showed that this classification method could be applied to establish a more accurate prediction model to diagnose breast cancer by comparing the performance of prediction models with different combinations of genes. We expect that our scheme of classification could be used for other types of cancer data.