Comparison Between a Manual Squamous Cell Carcinoma Antigen Assay and an Automated Assay in a Clinical Setting

Lab Med. 2018 Jul 5;49(3):254-258. doi: 10.1093/labmed/lmy003.

Abstract

Objective: To compare a manual squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) assay and an automated SCCA assay in a clinical setting.

Methods: We included, in this study, a total of 158 specimens that had been tested using the manual SCCA assay. The CanAg SCC EIA assay and the Elecsys SCC were compared for their clinical settings.

Results: Within-run and between-day coefficients of variation (CVs, %) were lower than 3%. Comparison of the manual and automated SCCA assays yielded good correlation. The correlation coefficient (R2) between the CanAg SCC EIA and Elecsys SCC assay results was 0.989 (P <.001) and the overall concordance rate was 94.3%.

Conclusions: We report that the Elecsys SCC automated SCCA assay yielded performance comparable to that of the manual SCCA assay: the automated assay reduced the number of manual steps and test turnaround time.

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, Neoplasm / blood*
  • Automation, Laboratory / methods*
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / blood*
  • Blood Chemical Analysis* / methods
  • Blood Chemical Analysis* / standards
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques / methods*
  • Linear Models
  • Luminescent Measurements / methods*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Serpins / blood*

Substances

  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Serpins
  • squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen