Clinical significance and usefulness of soluble heparin binding-epidermal growth factor in gastric cancer

Table 2 Serum levels of soluble heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor and carcinoembryonic antigen according to disease groups

Groups	Control2 (n = 60)	High-risk3 (n = 30)	EGC (n = 37)	AGC (n = 30)	P value4
Serum sHB-EGF1 (pg/mL)	94.7 ± 83.6	98.7 ± 67.3	165.3 ± 123.2	314.4 ± 127.5	< 0.001
Serum CEA1 (ng/mL)	1.8 ± 1.5	2.2 ± 1.1	2.4 ± 1.4	4.5 ± 5.1	0.001

¹All tested values are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation.

²Control group includes individuals with normal mucosa or patients with simple chronic superficial gastritis and chronic atrophic gastritis.

³High-risk group included patients with intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia.

⁴One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test with the multiple comparisons by the post-hoc Bonferroni method is applied to compare the differences in means among disease groups. P < 0.05 (two-tailed) was considered statistically significant. AGC: Advanced gastric cancer; EGC: Early gastric cancer; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; sHB-EGF: Soluble heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor.