Circulating antibody to ANXA 1 may be a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of esophageal cancer

Circulating antibodies to linear peptides derived annexin A1 (ANXA1) and mucin type-1 (MUC1) have been found to be significantly increased in some types of cancer. The present study was then designed to test whether circulating antibodies to the above two tumor-associated antigens were altered in esophageal cancer. An enzymelinked immunosorbent assay was developed in-house to determine circulating IgG against peptide antigens derived from ANXA1 and MUC1, respectively, in 97 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and 227 healthy subjects. Student’s t-test revealed that patients with ESCC had significantly higher levels of anti-ANXA1 IgG (t=4.02, P≤0.0001) and male patients appeared to mainly contribute to the increased levels of anti-ANXA1 IgG in the circulation (t=4.21, P≤0.0001). However, circulating levels of anti-MUC1 IgG were not significantly altered in ESCC. The anti-ANXA1 IgG levels were decreased with stages of ESCC, of which patients with stage I ESCC had the highest IgG level among all 4 stages (t=4.84, P≤0.0001, compared to control subjects). Pearson analysis showed a significant correlation between anti-ANXA1 IgG levels and stages of ESCC (r=0.21, df=90, P=0.044) but no correlation between anti-MUC1 IgG levels and stages of ESCC (r=0.01, df=90, P=0.899). In conclusion, circulating IgG to ANXA1 may be a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of esophageal cancer.