Evaluation of Serum Vascular Adhesion Protein-1 as a Potential Biomarker in Thyroid Cancer

Abstract EN

Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) is a glycoprotein that mediates tissue-selective lymphocyte adhesion.

The prognostic value of VAP-1 has been determined in gastric cancer.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes and the predictive value of serum VAP-1 in patients with thyroid cancer.

A total of 126 patients with thyroid nodules and 53 healthy controls participated in this study.

The patients were further divided into subgroup 1 (69 cases with benign thyroid nodules) and subgroup 2 (57 cases with thyroid cancer).

Serum VAP-1 was measured by time-resolved immunofluorometric assay.

Diagnostic value of presurgical VAP-1 for thyroid cancer was conducted by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Serum levels of VAP-1 were significantly lower in thyroid cancer group than in healthy control and benign thyroid nodule groups.

VAP-1 concentrations negatively correlated with serum thyroglobulin (Tg) levels in thyroid cancer patients ( r = - 0.81 ; p < 0.001 ).

The optimum cut-off value of VAP-1 was 456.6 ng/mL with a 77.4% specificity and 66.7% sensitivity for thyroid cancer diagnosis.

Serum VAP-1 decreased in thyroid cancer patients and VAP-1 could be a potential useful adjunct biomarker in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer.