Elevated serum tumor-associated antigens in patients with interstitial lung disease: a retrospective study on clinical features and prognosis.

Background: Elevated serum tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) were reported to be common in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) and correlated with pulmonary involvement or malignancy development. However, there were no adequate longitudinal studies on the association between elevated TAAs and various types of ILDs in Chinese patients.

Research design and methods: The treatment-naïve ILD patients were retrospectively enrolled. The clinical, laboratory, imaging characteristics, and prognosis were analyzed and compared among those with normal and different number of elevated TAAs.

Results: An increase of at least one TAA was present in 169/308 (54.87%) of our patients. Both baseline alveolar and interstitial scores were much higher, and lung involvement tended to be worse during follow-up in patients with two and three or more elevated TAAs than in normal TAAs. Patients with three or more elevated TAAs had the highest interstitial scores and a higher all-cause mortality during follow-up than those with one elevated TAA or normal TAAs. The occurrence of malignancy was similar in all patients.

Conclusion: Elevated TAAs were present in 54.87% of ILD patients and associated with lung interstitial lesions, which might be a marker for lung involvement progression, while not for malignancy development in ILD.