Serum tumor markers CEA, CYFRA 21-1 and anti-p53 in patients with lung cancer.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of serum CEA, CYFRA 21-1, and anti-p53 assay in patients with lung cancer. Data regarding a group of 42 patients (27 men, 15 women, median age 62 years, range 51-78 years) with confirmed sage I lung cancer, and a group of 45 sex- and age-matched smokers patients with benign chronic lung diseases underwent serum CEA, CYFRA 21-1, and anti-p53 measurement. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were the following: 47.6%, 80.0%, 68.9%, 62.1%, and 64.0% for CEA (chi-squared = 0.0063); 40.5%, 92.8%, 85.0%, 60.9%, and 67.0% for CYFRA 21-1 (chi-squared = 0.00031); 30.9%, 95.2%, 86.7%, 57.9%, and 63.0% for anti-p53 (chi-squared = 0.0017), respectively. In conclusion, all the tested serum markers had low sensitivity (from 30.9% to 47.6%) in detecting cancer, but a good specificity, ranging between 95.2% and 80%. However, the accuracy ranged from 63% to 67%, and thus they are not useful for early diagnosis of lung cancer.