Published online Aug 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i8.1562
Peer-review started: March 8, 2022
First decision: April 7, 2022
Revised: April 13, 2022
Accepted: July 18, 2022
Article in press: July 18, 2022
Published online: August 15, 2022
Processing time: 155 Days and 4 Hours
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) plays an important role in tumor research and in clinical applications and provides new ideas and approaches for tumor prevention, early diagnosis, and individualized treatment.
The clinical use of MALDI-TOF-MS serum-based biomarkers for colorectal cancer detection should be investigated.
We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum proteomics for colorectal cancer detection.
Eighty-three healthy controls, 62 colon polyp patients and 101 colorectal cancer patients were enrolled, and their serum samples were analyzed by serum proteomics. The diagnostic value of differential protein profiles was evaluated and compared with that of conventional biomarkers.
The area under the curve resulting from a diagnostic based on the levels of a differentially expressed protein with a mass-to-charge ratio of 2022.34 for discriminating healthy controls and colorectal cancer patients was 0.843, while the sensitivity was 75.3% and the specificity was 79.5%. After cross-validation, the diagnostic accuracy of this approach was 82.37%. For classification of the colorectal polyp group, proteins with mass-to-charge ratios of 2899.38 and 877.3 were automatically selected to establish a classification tree model. The sensitivity and specificity were 81.8% and 66.75%, respectively. The sensitivities and specificities of diagnostics based on the levels of carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 were 55.6% and 91.3% and 65.4% and 65.2%, respectively.
We have built an assistant diagnostic method for the detection of colorectal cancer based on serum proteomics. It may be helpful for colorectal cancer clinical management.
Studies with standard detection protocols and larger sample sizes should be performed in the future, and the protein profiles should also be confirmed.