Clinical significance of a multiple biomarker assay in patients with lung cancer. A study with logistic regression analysis.

The relative usefulness of a combination of some tumor markers, such as CEA, AFP, ferritin and NSE for the diagnosis of lung cancer was assessed by multiple logistic analysis. Serum concentration of these markers was determined in 68 patients with lung cancer (50 with NSCLC and 18 with SCLC, in 68 patients with benign lung disease and 75 normal control subjects. Ferritin proved to be the most useful in diagnosing both NSCLC and SCLC, while NSE was found to be of some help in diagnosing SCLC only. The multiple marker panel proved to be more sensitive and specific than any single marker in discriminating lung cancer from normal control tissue, but it was of limited value in discriminating malignant from benign lung disease. The results of the present study would suggest that the panel of investigated tumor markers is not of great help for the early diagnosis of lung cancer.