Respiratory Research (Sep 2024)

Serum tumor markers: potential indicators for occult lymph node metastasis in clinical T1 − 2N0M0 small cell lung cancer patients

  • Xu Jiang,
  • Meng-Wen Liu,
  • Lei Miao,
  • Jiu-Ming Jiang,
  • Lin Yang,
  • Meng Li,
  • Li Zhang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-024-02941-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 1
pp. 1 – 5

Abstract

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Abstract In their letter-to-the-editor entitled “Letter to the Editor: Incidence rate of occult lymph node metastasis in clinical T1 − 2N0M0 small cell lung cancer patients and radiomic prediction based on contrast-enhanced CT imaging: a multicenter study”, Prof. Chen et al. provided insightful comments and suggestions on our original study. We appreciate the authors’ feedback and have conducted a preliminary exploration of the predictive value of serum tumor markers (TMs) for occult lymph node metastasis (OLM) in clinical T1 − 2N0M0 (cT1 − 2N0M0) small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The results indicate that neuron-specific enolase (NSE), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) have potential predictive value for detecting OLM in cT1 − 2N0M0 SCLC patients. Additionally, further exploration and confirmation through prospective, large-scale studies with robust external validation are needed.

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