Serum macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 serves as a novel diagnostic biomarker of early-stage colorectal cancer

• Published in: Biomarkers Vol. 26; no. 7; pp. 598 - 605
• Main Authors: Dai, Chunyang, Zhang, Xiaolei, Ma, Yanling, Chen, Zhaowu, Chen, Shaohua, Zhang, Yang, Li, Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 03.10.2021
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; cancer biomarker; Colorectal cancer; Colorectal Neoplasms - blood; Colorectal Neoplasms - diagnosis; early diagnosis; Female; Growth Differentiation Factor 15 - blood; Humans; Male; MIC-1; Middle Aged; Precancerous Conditions - blood; Precancerous Conditions - diagnosis; Sensitivity and Specificity; early diagnosis; MIC-1; cancer biomarker; Colorectal cancer
• ISSN: 1354-750X; 1366-5804
• DOI: 10.1080/1354750X.2021.1950209

Patients with colorectal cancer usually have a poor prognosis because of the absence of suitable biomarkers for diagnosing asymptomatic patients. Here we determined the ability of MIC-1 to detect precancerous lesions and CRC in an asymptomatic cohort from CRC Screening Program. We screened 2759 subjects with risk factors. Endoscopic and histopathological analyses revealed that 19 and 47 subjects had CRC or precancerous lesions. We randomly selected 24 subjects with normal colonoscopies as healthy controls. We used receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of MIC-1 for CRC and precancerous lesions. The optimal thresholds of MIC-1 levels with precancerous lesions or CRC were 314.12 pg/mL (sensitivity, 91.50%; specificity, 54.20%) and 357.64 pg/mL (sensitivity, 82.40%; specificity, 70.80%). Moreover, MIC-1 levels distinguished precancerous lesions better than CEA, CA19-9, or CA24-2 (AUC: 0.760 vs. 0.529, 0.624, and 0.585) or CRC (AUCs: 0.821 vs. 0.743, 0.657, and 0.688) from the healthy controls. The combination of MIC-1, CEA, CA19-9, and CA24-2 showed the highest in sensitivity and specificity for CRC diagnosis (sensitivity, 94.10%; specificity, 87.50%). Serum MIC-1 levels increased the sensitivity of detection of precancerous colorectal lesions and CRC and can be used to improve screening.