Elevations of serum cancer biomarkers correlate with severity of COVID-19.

Abstract

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.

• Authors: Xiuqi Wei, Jingyu Su, Kunyu Yang, Jiazhou Wei, Huimin Wan, Xiaoling Cao, Wenbin Tan, Hui Wang
• Journal: Journal of medical virology (J Med Virol) Vol. 92 Issue 10 Pg. 2036-2041 (10 2020) ISSN: 1096-9071 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 32347972 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Chemical References

• Antigens, Neoplasm
• Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate
• Biomarkers, Tumor
• CA-125 Antigen
• CA153 protein, human
• Keratin-19
• Serpins
• WAP Four-Disulfide Core Domain Protein 2
• WFDC2 protein, human
• antigen CYFRA21.1
• carbohydrate antigen 199, human
• squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen
• C-Reactive Protein

Topics

• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Antigens, Neoplasm (blood)
• Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate (blood)
• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• C-Reactive Protein (analysis)
• CA-125 Antigen (blood)
• COVID-19 (blood, diagnosis)
• Case-Control Studies
• China
• Comorbidity
• Female
• Humans
• Keratin-19 (blood)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Retrospective Studies
• Serpins (blood)
• Severity of Illness Index
• WAP Four-Disulfide Core Domain Protein 2 (analysis)