Plasma Thioredoxin Reductase as a Potential Biomarker for Gynecologic Cancer

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Oncology
• Gynecologic Oncology

Background:

• Plasma thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) levels are elevated in various cancers, suggesting potential as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker.
• The clinical utility of plasma TrxR in gynecologic malignancies remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of plasma TrxR for gynecologic cancer.
• To investigate the role of plasma TrxR in monitoring treatment response in gynecologic cancer patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 134 gynecologic cancer patients and 79 benign gynecologic disease patients.
• Comparison of plasma TrxR activity and tumor marker levels between groups using Mann-Whitney U test.
• Assessment of TrxR and tumor marker changes pre- and post-treatment using Wilcoxon signed-ranks test.

Main Results:

• Significantly higher plasma TrxR activity in gynecologic cancer patients (8.4 U/mL) compared to benign controls (5.7 U/mL) (P < .0001).
• Plasma TrxR demonstrated high diagnostic efficacy (AUC 0.823) for distinguishing gynecologic cancer from benign disease.
• Plasma TrxR levels decreased significantly after antitumor therapy (P < .0001), mirroring conventional tumor marker trends.

Conclusions:

• Plasma TrxR is an effective biomarker for the diagnosis of gynecologic cancer.
• Plasma TrxR serves as a promising biomarker for assessing treatment response in gynecologic cancer.