J Korean Gastric Cancer Assoc.  2009 Dec;9(4):167-171.

The Role of Serum Pepsinogen in Detection of Gastric Cancer

• Ryu HK
• Park JW
• Lee KH
• Jeon CH
• Lee HJ
• Chae HD

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was done to determine the usefulness of serum pepsinogen (PG) levels as a screening method for gastric cancer, and to assess the relationships between serum PG and clinicopathologic factors of gastric adenocarcinoma.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Serum PG concentrations were measured in 94 subjects who were classified into (a) a control group (50 subjects) without abnormal endoscopic finding on a health checkup, or (b) a gastric cancer group (44 subjects) who had surgery at Daegu Catholic University Hospital between Nov. 2008 and May 2009. Receiver operator characteristic curves were utilized to select the most suitable test. Using different cutoff points, sensitivity and specificity were calculated. We compared preoperative serum PG levels with several clinicopathologic findings for patients with gastric adenocarcinoma.
RESULTS
The Serum PG I:II ratio was the most useful as a screening test. The sensitivity and specificity of PG screening for gastric cancer were, respectively, 81.8% and 82%. The cut off point correlated with the type of intestinal cancer (Lauren classification; P=0.003), tumor stage (P=0.001), and gastric adenocarcinoma with peritumoral chronic atrophic gastritis (P=0.036).
CONCLUSION
Serum PG levels were found to be a potentially useful screening test and to correlate with clinicopathologic factors in gastric cancer patients. But, in order to use serum PG found in a health checkup for gastric cancer as a clinical application a large scale study is recommended.

Keyword

Gastric adenocarcinoma; Screening; Pepsinogen; Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves

MeSH Terms

Adenocarcinoma
Gastritis, Atrophic
Humans
Intestinal Neoplasms
Mass Screening
Pepsinogen A
Sensitivity and Specificity
Stomach Neoplasms
Pepsinogen A