Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy
<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) pose a significant challenge in clinical practice and exert a considerable socio-economic burden on the healthcare system, affecting approximately 1 million individuals annually. These effusions are a leading cause of debil...
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MDPI AG
2025-01-01
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| author | Vladimir Aleksiev Daniel Markov Kristian Bechev |
| author_facet | Vladimir Aleksiev Daniel Markov Kristian Bechev |
| author_sort | Vladimir Aleksiev |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <b>Background/Objectives</b>: Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) pose a significant challenge in clinical practice and exert a considerable socio-economic burden on the healthcare system, affecting approximately 1 million individuals annually. These effusions are a leading cause of debilitating dyspnea and a diminished quality of life among cancer patients, with distant metastasis to the pleural layers occurring in about 20% of cases during treatment. <b>Methods</b>: A cross-sectional, observational case-control study was conducted on 151 Bulgarian patients with a hydrothorax. The control group included 72 patients with benign diseases, confirmed via biopsy, with 38 having inflammatory and 34 non-inflammatory pleural effusions. The other 79 patients had malignant pleural involvement. These groups are representative of the main types of pleural pathology. <b>Results</b>: The study found that all of the tumor markers, except for PIVKA-II (Protein induced by vitamin K absence-II), showed statistically significant differences between the malignant and non-malignant patient groups, with CAE (carcinoembryonic antigen) and CA19-9 showing the most notable differences. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that CA72-4 had the best ability to distinguish between the two groups, while PIVKA was the weakest, with optimal cut-off values for all of the relevant tumor markers being derived using the Youden index. <b>Conclusions</b>: In conclusion, our study highlights the transformative potential of pleural fluid tumor markers as precise and minimally invasive resources for distinguishing malignant from non-malignant pleural effusions. These findings pave the way for improved diagnostic accuracy and personalized clinical management, addressing a critical gap in the care of patients with pleural pathologies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d5131c7150ed4e0bab3ced561053cf3b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2075-4418 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Diagnostics |
| spelling | doaj-art-d5131c7150ed4e0bab3ced561053cf3b2025-01-24T13:29:06ZengMDPI AGDiagnostics2075-44182025-01-0115220410.3390/diagnostics15020204Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic AccuracyVladimir Aleksiev0Daniel Markov1Kristian Bechev2Department of Thoracic Surgery, UMHAT “Kaspela”, 4001 Plovdiv, BulgariaDepartment of Clinical Pathology, UMHAT “Pulmed”, 4002 Plovdiv, BulgariaDepartment of General and Clinical Pathology, Medical University of Plovdiv, 4002 Plovdiv, Bulgaria<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) pose a significant challenge in clinical practice and exert a considerable socio-economic burden on the healthcare system, affecting approximately 1 million individuals annually. These effusions are a leading cause of debilitating dyspnea and a diminished quality of life among cancer patients, with distant metastasis to the pleural layers occurring in about 20% of cases during treatment. <b>Methods</b>: A cross-sectional, observational case-control study was conducted on 151 Bulgarian patients with a hydrothorax. The control group included 72 patients with benign diseases, confirmed via biopsy, with 38 having inflammatory and 34 non-inflammatory pleural effusions. The other 79 patients had malignant pleural involvement. These groups are representative of the main types of pleural pathology. <b>Results</b>: The study found that all of the tumor markers, except for PIVKA-II (Protein induced by vitamin K absence-II), showed statistically significant differences between the malignant and non-malignant patient groups, with CAE (carcinoembryonic antigen) and CA19-9 showing the most notable differences. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that CA72-4 had the best ability to distinguish between the two groups, while PIVKA was the weakest, with optimal cut-off values for all of the relevant tumor markers being derived using the Youden index. <b>Conclusions</b>: In conclusion, our study highlights the transformative potential of pleural fluid tumor markers as precise and minimally invasive resources for distinguishing malignant from non-malignant pleural effusions. These findings pave the way for improved diagnostic accuracy and personalized clinical management, addressing a critical gap in the care of patients with pleural pathologies.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/15/2/204malignant pleural effusiontumor markerdiagnosis |
| spellingShingle | Vladimir Aleksiev Daniel Markov Kristian Bechev Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy Diagnostics malignant pleural effusion tumor marker diagnosis |
| title | Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy |
| title_full | Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy |
| title_fullStr | Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy |
| title_short | Tumor Markers in Pleural Fluid: A Comprehensive Study on Diagnostic Accuracy |
| title_sort | tumor markers in pleural fluid a comprehensive study on diagnostic accuracy |
| topic | malignant pleural effusion tumor marker diagnosis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/15/2/204 |
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