Serum autoantibody-based biomarkers for prognosis in early-stage lung cancer patients with surgical resection

Lung cancer is the cancer with the highest morbidity and mortality in the world. With the increasing diagnosis rate of patients with early-stage lung cancer, surgery treatment becomes an option for more patients. However, there is a lack of effective indicators to assess the risk of recurrence after lung cancer surgery. We collected levels of serum autoantibodies and evaluated their roles as biomarkers especially for postoperative recurrence of lung cancer. In vitro experiments including antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) were performed to explore the functions of serum autoantibodies. Our study demonstrated that serum autoantibody-positive patients with early-stage lung cancer had a longer postoperative progression period. The levels of serum autoantibodies in patients with lung cancer were higher than that in patients with benign lung diseases. But all the serum autoantibodies had no difference between patients with stage I and II. In addition, the results of in vitro experiments indicated that serum autoantibodies can mediate immune responses and enhance anti-tumour effects. This study proposed effective biomarkers for prognosis in lung cancer patients after surgery which is critical to reduce the recurrence.

肺癌是全球发病率与死亡率最高的恶性肿瘤。随着早期肺癌患者确诊率的持续提升，手术治疗已成为更多患者的可选治疗方案。然而目前尚缺乏可有效评估肺癌术后复发风险的指标。本研究测定了血清自身抗体水平，并评估其作为生物标志物（biomarker）在肺癌术后复发预测中的应用价值。本研究开展了包括抗体依赖性细胞介导的细胞毒作用（antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, ADCC）、抗体依赖性细胞吞噬作用（antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis, ADCP）以及补体依赖的细胞毒作用（complement-dependent cytotoxicity, CDC）在内的体外实验，以探究血清自身抗体的功能。研究结果证实，血清自身抗体阳性的早期肺癌患者术后无进展生存期更长；肺癌患者的血清自身抗体水平显著高于肺良性疾病患者，但I期与II期肺癌患者的血清自身抗体水平无显著差异。此外，体外实验结果表明，血清自身抗体可介导免疫应答并增强抗肿瘤效应。本研究提出了可用于肺癌术后预后评估的有效生物标志物，这对于降低术后复发风险具有重要意义。