Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification (VTQ) offers several advantages in the diagnosis of various
lung diseases.
Chemokine expression levels, such as CXCL13, play a vital role in the occurrence and development of
tumors and aid in the diagnosis process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the combined value of VTQ and changes in CXCL13 expression levels for the diagnosis of lung
tumors. A total of 60 patients with thoracic nodules and
pleural effusion were included, with 30 of them having
malignant pleural effusion (based on pathology) and the remaining 30 having benign thoracic nodules and
pleural effusion. The relative expression level of CXCL13 was measured in the collected
pleural effusions using
Enzyme-Linked
Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The relationship between CXCL13 expression levels and various clinical features was analyzed. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted on the VTQ results and relative expression levels of CXCL13, and the areas under the curve, critical values, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated. Multivariate analysis incorporating multiple indicators was performed to determine the accuracy of lung
tumor diagnosis. The results showed that the expression levels of CXCL13 and VTQ were significantly higher in the
lung cancer group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). In the
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) group, CXCL13 expression levels increased with later TNM staging and poorer
tumor differentiation. The expression level of CXCL13 in
adenocarcinoma was higher than that in
squamous cell carcinoma. The ROC curve analysis revealed that CXCL13 had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.74 (0.61, 0.86) with an optimal cut-off value of 777.82 pg/ml for diagnosing lung
tumors. The ROC curve analysis of VTQ showed an AUC of 0.67 (0.53, 0.82) with a sensitivity of 60.0% and a specificity of 83.3%, and an optimal diagnostic cut-off of 3.33 m/s. The combination of CXCL13 and VTQ for diagnosing thoracic
tumors had an AUC of 0.842 (0.74, 0.94), which was significantly higher than either factor alone. The results of the study demonstrate the strong potential of combining VTQ results with
chemokine CXCL13 expression levels for lung
tumor diagnosis. Additionally, the findings suggest that elevated relative expression of CXCL13 in cases of
malignant pleural effusion caused by
non-small cell lung cancer may indicate a poor prognosis. This provides promising potential for using CXCL13 as a screening tool and prognostic
indicator for patients with advanced
lung cancer complicated by
malignant pleural effusion.