Increased serum CA724 levels in patients suffering gout vs cancers

CA724 is a clinically used serum biomarker used for cancer diagnosis, which includes digestive tract cancers (esophageal, gastric, and colorectal carcinomas), ovarian cancer, and nonsmall cell lung cancer. In general, the serum CA724 level is lower than 6U/mL in healthy controls and significantly higher in cancer patients. It has been further established that serum CA724 level is related to the pathological stage and prognosis of cancers. However, CA724 is not only expressed in tumor tissues but also in normal tissues such as the secretory endometrium and transitional colonic mucosa, which indicates that CA724 is not a unique product of cancer cells. Currently, the serum CA724 levels in patients suffering cancer or nonneoplasm diseases have not been systematically measured and compared. In our study, a total of 38,526 clinical lab test results of serum CA724 levels from healthy controls and patients suffering 34 different types of diseases including cancers and nonneoplasm illnesses during the past 3 years (2015-2018) were collected and analyzed. We found that the mean values of serum CA724 levels were significantly higher in patients suffering gout (23.7U/mL) and gouty arthritis (31.45U/mL) than that of cancer patients (Mann-Whitney test, p<0.0001). The summarized mean and median values of serum CA724 data for healthy controls vs patients suffering 34 different types of diseases indicated that the abnormal serum CA724 levels might be a systemic malfunction indicator rather than a cancer cell-secreted product; the log₁₀p values showed that CA724 is not only a cancer biomarker but also a potential biomarker for patients suffering gout.