Relationship between HE4 levels and metabolic parameters in PET of non-small cell lung cancer patients

To investigate the relationship between serum human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) levels and metabolic parameters of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in patients with lung cancer.

Sixty non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients were included in this prospective study. Demographic information, smoking status, comorbid pathologies, preoperative HE4 levels, PET imaging metabolic parameters, disease stage and histopathology were recorded.

Significant positive correlations between serum HE4 levels and all the metabolic parameters were observed (p < 0.05). In univariate regression analyses, it was observed that high serum HE4 levels could indicate tumor be squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (p = 0.029), advanced T stage (p = 0.041), and have high maximum standart uptake value (SUVmax) (p = 0.017).

Serum HE4 levels can be used as a biomarker to predict tumor burden and metabolic activity for NSCLC patients. Although sufficient per power analysis, this study may have benefited from further expansion, and by patient heterogeneity in TNM stage and tumor histology, potentially affecting the assessment of parameter relationships.