ArticleAsian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP2021
Serum Human Epididymis Protein-4 (HE4) - A novel Approach to Differentiate Malignant Frombenign Breast Tumors.
Article in Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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6 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Study of Glutathione S-Transferase, Its Isoenzyme (Pi) and Tumor Marker (CA15-3, HE4) in Breast Carcinoma Patients (Before and After Treatment).Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2025Article
- Study of Glutathione S-Transferase, Its Isoenzyme (Pi), and Tumor Markers (CA15-3, HE4) in Breast Carcinoma Patients (Before and After Treatment).Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2025Review
- Assessment of Human Epididymis Protein 4 Expression in Breast Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Two novel genetic variants in the WFDC2 gene from patients with bronchiectasis.Respiratory research · 2025Article
- Comprehensive analysis of the metabolomics and transcriptomics uncovers the dysregulated network and potential biomarkers of Triple Negative Breast Cancer.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Article
- Knockdown of HE4 suppresses tumor growth and invasiveness in lung adenocarcinoma through regulation of EGFR signaling.Oncology research · 2024Article
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7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundThe lack of sensitivity and specificity of existing diagnostic markers like Carbohydrate Antigen 15-3(CA15-3) and Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in breast cancer stimulates the search for new biomarkers to improve diagnostic sensitivity especially in differentiating benign and malignant breast tumors. Expression of Human epididymal protein 4 (HE4) has been demonstrated in ductal carcinoma of the breast tissue. So we tried to evaluate serum HE4 levels as diagnostic marker in breast cancer patients and to comparatively assess serum HE4, CEA and CA15-3 in breast tumor patients both benign and malignant.
methodsTotal 90 female subjects were included in the study. We selected 30 breast cancer cases (Malignant group) and 30 benign breast lump cases (Benign group) based on histopathology report. And other 30 were age matched apparently healthy controls (Control group). HE4, CEA and CA15-3 were analysed in serum samples of all subjects by Electrochemiluminiscence immunoassay method.
resultsA significant difference in the median (IQR) of HE4 (pmol/l) was identified among malignant, benign and control groups {62.4(52.6-73.7) vs 49.3(39.8-57.4) vs 52.3(50.6-63.3) P=0.0009} respectively. The cutoff value for prediction of breast cancer was determined at >54.5 pmol/l for HE4, with a sensitivity of 73.3%, specificity of 65.3%, whereas cutoff value of CA 15-3 was >21.24 (U/ml) with a sensitivity of 56.7%, specificity of 74.5%. For CEA at cutoff value >0.99 (ng/ml) the sensitivity and specificity were 96.7 % and 62.7% respectively. AUC for HE4, CA15-3 and CEA were 0.725, 0.644 and 0.857 respectively.
conclusionOur study demonstrated that serum levels of HE4 were significantly higher in malignant group compared to benign and control groups. There is no significant difference between HE4 levels between benign and control groups. These results indicate that HE4 appears as a useful and highly specific biomarker for breast cancer, which can differentiate between malignant and benign tumors.
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