Expression and diagnostic significance of tripartite motif family protein 72 in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

Objective To explore the expressions of tripartite motif family protein 72 (TRIM72) in peripheral blood, pleural effusion and tumor tissue in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Methods There were 80 cases diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma collected in the affiliated hospital of Guangdong Medical University from August 2017 to February 2018 and 20 healthy subjects in the same period were taken as control group.The expression of TRIM72 was detected by immunohistochemistry, and ELISA kits were used to detect the TRIM72 in peripheral blood and pleural effusion.Also, clinical data were analyzed. Results TRIM72 was mainly expressed in normal airway epithelial cells but hardly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues.TRIM72 level of peripheral blood was significantly lower in the patients with lung adenocarcinoma compared to control group (t=8.727, P<0.05), and negatively correlated with CEA (r=-0.556, P<0.001). TRIM72 level in malignant pleural effusion is significantly lower than that in inflammatory effusion (t=10.09, P<0.05). TRIM72, CEA, CA125 were used to make receiver operating characteristics curve for the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma.The areas under the curve were 0.927, 0.746, 0.851, with a cut-off 110.629 ng/L, 4.535 μg/L, 33.965 U/ml respectively.When TRIM72 combined with CEA and CA125, the area under the curve could reach 0.974. Conclusions Serum TRIM72 may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma. Key words: Biological markers; Receiver operating characteristics curve; Tripartite motif family protein 72; Lung adenocarcinoma