Objective: To study the diagnostic value of combined detection of 3 tumor markers, namely tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS), neuro-specific enolase (NSE) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), in patients with lung cancer.
Methods: The serum levels of TPS, NSE and CEA were determined by enzyme-linked immumosorbent assay in 72 patients with lung cancer and 114 healthy adults.
Results: The levels of the 3 tumor markers in the patient group were significantly higher than those of the healthy control group (P<0.001). The sensitivity of TPS for lung cancer detection was 84.7% with specificity of 89.4%, which were 54.1% and 91.2% respectively for NSE, and 45.8% and 91.4% respectively for CEA. The combined detection of the 3 tumor markers for lung cancer diagnosis had a sensitivity of 100%.
Conclusions: TPS, NSE and CEA employed separately are helpful in the diagnosis of lung cancer, and their combined detection may significantly improve the sensitivity for lung cancer detection, due to the obvious complementarity of the 3 markers.