A total of 987 patients admitted to Xinqiao hospital of the Army Medical University from 2014 to 2017 were enrolled in this study. Fasting plasma samples were obtained from 485 patients with NSCLC (including 291 patients with adenocarcinoma, 180 patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 10 patients with adenosquamous carcinoma, and 4 patients with large cell carcinoma), 48 patients with SCLC, and 454 controls. All Lung cancer patients were diagnosed according to NCCN guidelines (15 (link)). The TNM stage of disease was defined according to the 7th edition of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer classification system. All lung cancer patients were newly diagnosed and pathologically confirmed by surgical samples or biopsy tissue. Patients who had received surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or targeted drug or had a history of heart, liver, kidney disease, or diabetes were excluded.
The healthy individuals and patients with benign lung diseases were selected as the control group. Healthy controls were recruited from the participants of routine physical examinations during the same period. The benign lung disease group included patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, and other diseases (pulmonary embolism, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease, etc.). Demographic and clinicopathological characteristics of all participants were obtained through a combination of structured questionnaire and medical records. All blood samples were collected after the informed consent of the patients and the study was approved by the ethical committee of the Army Medical University. For each participant, 5ml blood samples were collected and were separated by centrifugation at 4°C and stored in sterile tubes at -80°C within 4 hours of sample collection without repeated freezing and thawing.
The healthy individuals and patients with benign lung diseases were selected as the control group. Healthy controls were recruited from the participants of routine physical examinations during the same period. The benign lung disease group included patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, and other diseases (pulmonary embolism, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease, etc.). Demographic and clinicopathological characteristics of all participants were obtained through a combination of structured questionnaire and medical records. All blood samples were collected after the informed consent of the patients and the study was approved by the ethical committee of the Army Medical University. For each participant, 5ml blood samples were collected and were separated by centrifugation at 4°C and stored in sterile tubes at -80°C within 4 hours of sample collection without repeated freezing and thawing.
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