Clinical significance of serum complement C1q in diagnosis of malignant tumors

Abstract

Objective To investigate the serum level of complement C1q in patients with malignant tumors and its clinical significance in the diagnosis of the tumors. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 468 patients with malignant tumors (including 164 cases of lung malignant tumors, 123 cases of liver malignant tumors, 108 cases of gastric malignant tumors, and 73 cases of multiple myeloma) who were newly diagnosed and had not received any treatment measures from September 2020 to March 2021 in our hospital. Another 50 healthy individuals who taking physical examinations were subjected as control group. The serum level of complement C1q was quantitatively detected using the immunoturbidimetric assay. The levels were compared between the control and the patient groups. Results The serum C1q level was 155.17±34.81, 164.76±48.79, 156.87±32.70 and 124.39±31.71 mg/L, respectively in the lung, liver and gastric malignant tumor groups and multiple myeloma group, and the levels were significantly lower than that of the healthy control group (191.69±21.94 mg/L, P < 0.05). The sensitivity of serum C1q detection in the 4 malignant tumor groups was all above 90%, and the diagnostic efficacy of multiple myeloma was better (sensitivity 91.7%, specificity 86.3%). Using the normal group as a control, ROC curve analysis indicated that the cut-off value of serum complement C1q level in multiple myeloma patients was 157.8 mg/L, with an AUC area of 0.954; and the value was 164.3, 164.4, 164.3 and 164.4 mg/L for c lung, liver and gastric malignant tumors and all these tumors, respectively, with an AUC value of 0.836, 0.757, 0.817 and 0.830, respectively. Conclusion Serum C1q level determination has auxiliary diagnostic significance for malignant tumors, especially for the diagnosis of multiple myeloma.

Keywords

• complement
• c1q
• malignant tumor