Premium
Elevations of serum cancer biomarkers correlate with severity of COVID‐19
Author(s) -
Wei Xiuqi,
Su Jingyu,
Yang Kunyu,
Wei Jiazhou,
Wan Huimin,
Cao Xiaoling,
Tan Wenbin,
Wang Hui
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.25957
Subject(s) - covid-19 , virology , medicine , betacoronavirus , cancer , sars virus , coronavirus infections , pandemic , immunology , disease , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty)
In this retrospective study, we evaluated the levels of a series of serum biomarkers in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) patients (mild: 131; severe: 98; critical: 23). We found that there were significant increases in levels of human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) (73.6 ± 38.3 vs 46.5 ± 14.7 pmol/L; P < .001), cytokeratin‐19 fragment (CYFRA21‐1) (2.2 ± 0.9 vs 1.9 ± 0.8 μg/L; P < .001), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (3.4 ± 2.2 vs 2.1 ± 1.2 μg/L; P < .001), carbohydrate antigens (CA) 125 (18.1 ± 13.5 vs 10.5 ± 4.6 μg/L; P < .001), and 153 (14.4 ± 8.9 vs 10.1 ± 4.4 μg/L; P < .001) in COVID‐19 mild cases as compared to normal control subjects; their levels showed continuous and significant increases in severe and critical cases (HE4, CYFRA21‐1, and CA125: P < .001; CEA and CA153: P < .01). Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) and CA199 increased significantly only in critical cases of COVID‐19 as compared with mild and severe cases and normal controls ( P < .01). There were positive associations between levels of C‐reactive protein and levels of HE4 ( R = .631; P < .001), CYFRA21‐1 ( R = .431; P < .001), CEA ( R = .316; P < .001), SCC ( R = .351; P < .001), CA153 ( R = .359; P < .001) and CA125 ( R = .223; P = .031). We concluded that elevations of serum cancer biomarkers positively correlated with the pathological progressions of COVID‐19, demonstrating diffuse and acute pathophysiological injuries in COVID‐19.