Apo10 and TKTL1 in blood macrophages as biomarkers for differentiating lung cancer from benign lung lesions: a comparative study with conventional biomarkers.

The detection of biomarkers in blood macrophages is a new non-invasive cancer screening method, but its performance in early stage lung cancer screening remains undetermined. We evaluated the Apo10 and TKTL1 levels in blood macrophages of 156 early-stage lung cancer patients and 153 controls. APT (combination of Apo10 and TKTL1) level was significantly higher in the lung cancer group than that in the control group (P < 0.001). AUROC analysis showed that APT has high diagnostic value in differentiating early-stage lung cancer (AUC = 0.9132) and can be considered a biomarker for screening lung cancer patients from individuals with lung nodules.