Extensive serum biomarker analysis in patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma

Lung cancer is a common malignant disease, nearly 2.09 million new patients occurred last year. Approximately 85% of the patients are classified as non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is therefore important to identify new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for the early detection of this disease. The presented study identifies biomarkers in the serum of NSCLC patients. The expression of 274 cytokines was measured by a novel antibody array methodology and ELISA was applied to validate the array results. The levels of MIP-1 α, IL-8, MIP-1 β, Resistin, GDF-15, HGF, CA125, FLRG, VCAM-1, DKK-3, sTNF-R1, CTACK, Acrp30, CXCL-16 and LYVE-1 were significantly higher in serum from NSCLC patients, while the level of TIMP-2 and IGFBP-6 were lower. More importantly, the validation supported the result of the antibody array. The result of the antibody array indicates that these cytokines might be novel auxiliary biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLC.