Background: Nidogen-2 (NID2), a secretory basement membrane protein, has been implicated as a potential biomarker in ovarian cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the utility of detecting serum NID2 levels for identification of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients and prediction of poor survival outcome.
Methods: Using an in-house NID2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), serum samples from 101 ESCC patients and 50 healthy controls were screened for their NID2 levels.
Results: The serum NID2 levels in ESCC patients (median 24.4 μg/L) are significantly higher (p= 4.3e-09) than that of the healthy controls (median 15.85 μg/L). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.756. At the threshold of 17.95 μg/L, the sensitivity and specificity achieved are 0.76 and 0.63, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that patients with high serum NID2 levels (⩾ 32.6 μg/L) have significantly higher risk of death (HR = 1.984, 95% CI: 1.175-3.349; log-rank p-value = 0.012) compared to those with low serum NID2 levels (< 20.0 μg/L).
Conclusions: In conclusion, we show that detecting the elevation of serum NID2 levels has potential diagnostic and prognostic value for ESCC patients.
Keywords: Nidogen-2; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; extracellular matrix protein; serum biomarker.