Serum Actinin-4 Levels as a Potential Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker in Cervical Cancer
Xigui Ma, Huiying Xue, Jixiang Zhong, Bo Feng, Yanghua Zuo
Abstract
Purpose . The present study was aimed at determining the serum levels of actinin-4 (ACTN4) in cervical cancer (CC) and investigating the diagnostic and prognostic value of serum ACTN4 in CC. Materials and Methods . We included 93 CC patients, 52 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) patients, and 70 healthy women. Serum ACTN4 levels were assessed using an ELISA method. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum ACTN4. The survival curves were used to display the overall survival distributions. Results . Serum ACTN4 levels in CC patients were <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mn>48.39</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>13.98</mml:mn></mml:math> pg/mL which is significantly higher than those in CIN patients (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mn>32.72</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>9.44</mml:mn></mml:math> pg/mL; <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>) and those in healthy controls (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mn>30.84</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>8.08</mml:mn></mml:math> pg/mL; <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>). The ROC analysis demonstrated that the area under the curve (AUC) of ACTN4 was 0.852 (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6"><mml:mn>95</mml:mn><mml:mi>%</mml:mi><mml:mtext>CI</mml:mtext><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.796</mml:mn><mml:mo>–</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.908</mml:mn></mml:math>), with sensitivity of 76.3% and specificity of 87.7%. Serum ACTN4 levels were associated with the FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis, and lymphovascular space invasion of CC (all <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.05</mml:mn></mml:math>). The survival curve suggested that high serum ACTN4 levels were related to poor prognosis. Conclusion . Our findings suggest that serum ACTN4 levels may be valuable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for CC.