The clinical significance of DJ-1 and HE4 in patients with endometrial cancer

Abstract

Background: The non-invasive diagnostic approach for early detection of endometrial cancer (EC) remains limited. To date, human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) has been intensively studied but its diagnostic is controversial in EC. DJ-1 is an oncoprotein secreted by cancer cells, recently identified as a potential diagnostic biomarker for breast cancer, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performances of DJ-1 and HE4 measured in EC patients and healthy controls (HC). Methods: Forty-five patients (63.9±12.0 years) with EC and 29 (63.2±13.3 years) HC were enrolled. Serum concentrations of DJ-1 and HE4 were measured using ELISA kits developed by R&D (Minneapolis, USA) and Fujirebio Diagnostic (Malvern, PA, USA), respectively. Differences between EC patients and HC were assessed by Mann-Whitney test and associations were tested by Spearman's correlation. The diagnostic performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves analysis. Results: Serum DJ-1 concentrations were found to be higher in EC patients than in HC (9533.6 vs 1988.5 pg/mL; P