To evaluate CYFRA 21-1, a newly -developed test which measures in serum a fragment of cytokeratin 19, we measured this marker in 60 patients with lung cancer (46 non small cell lung cancer "NSCLC" and 14 small cell lung cancer "SCLC") and 30 patients presenting with non malignant diseases, and compared it with other 2 markers: tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA).
Sensitivities of CYFRA 21-1, TPA and CEA (using cut-off values corresponding to a 95% specificity for benign pulmonary diseases) in bronchogenic carcinoma were 73.3%, 66.6% and 53.3%, respectively. The sensitivity of CYFRA 21-1 was significantly higher (91.3%) in detection of NSCLC than that of TPA (73.9%) and CEA
(56.5%), while the sensitivities of TPA and CEA were higher than that of CYFRA 21-1 in detection of SCLC (42.86%, 42.86, and 14.28% respectively). Sensitivity of CYFRA 21-1 (58.3%) and TPA (50%) was significantly higher than that of CEA (25%) in detection of small tumours (stage I + II). However, the sensitivities of the three markers were comparable in advanced stage tumours (stage III and IV). The sensitivity of the combined measurement of CYFRA 21-1 with any other tumour marker was not significantly higher than that of CYFRA 21-1 measurement alone. CYFRA 211 and TPA serum levels were significantly higher in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) than those in patients with adenocarcinoma and SCLC. CYFRA 21-1 was the only marker which able to discriminate the different stages of the tu- |
