Diagnostic Performance of a Novel Multiplex Immunoassay in Colorectal Cancer

Background/Aim: We evaluated the diagnostic performance of a newly-launched magnetic bead-based multiplex immunoassay panel including cancer, apoptotic, immunological and angiogenesis biomarkers for differential diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients and Methods: Serum samples of 106 individuals comprising of 35 patients with CRC (23 colon cancer, 12 rectal cancer), 20 with respective benign colorectal diseases and 51 healthy controls were analyzed by the Milliplex (TM) MAP Human Circulating Cancer Biomarker Panel 1 run on the Bio-Plex (TM) 200 System. Results: IL-8, CEA, HGF, TNF alpha, CYFRA 21-1, OPN, TGFa, CA 19-9, CA 125, AFP and sFas showed significantly higher levels in cancer samples compared to healthy controls. It is noteworthy that comparing CRC and benign colorectal disease samples, many immunological and cell death markers were elevated as well. Exclusively, six markers were distinguished significantly between both groups: CEA showed the best performance in differential diagnosis reaching an AUC of 0.859 in ROC curve followed by CA 19-9, CYFRA 21-1, IL-8, CA 125 and OPN reaching AUCs between 0.696 and 0.744. Correlation with tumor stage was found for CEA, sFas and CYFRA 21-1. Finally marker scores were assembled showing that a combination of CEA and CA 19-9 had a higher AUC (0.893) compared to the biomarkers alone. Conclusion: Differential diagnosis of CRC can be improved by new biomarker classes and their combination assessed by novel multiplex immunoassay.