Previous studies have suggested that the aberrant expression of Stanniocalcin‐1 (STC1) occurs in tumor cells. In this study, we explored whether the circulating STC1 mRNA is a promising biomarker in the peripheral blood in patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The level of circulating STC1 mRNA was determined with a sensitive quantitative real‐time reverse transcription PCR assay. and the data were analyzed by the statistical methods of one‐way ANOVA, Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon U‐Test, and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

The level of circulating STC1 mRNA in patients with NSCLC was significantly higher than in patients with benign pulmonary disease (P < 0.001) or healthy volunteers (P < 0.001). Higher levels of circulating STC1 mRNA were associated with more advanced tumor stages and histological subtypes. Using a cutoff of 0.055, the sensitivity and specificity of STC1 mRNA levels to differentiate between patients with NSCLC and patients with benign pulmonary diseases was 66.7 and 90.9%, and it was 63.7 and 99.8% for patients with NSCLC and healthy volunteers, respectively.

These findings support our hypothesis that circulating STC1 mRNA is a promising biomarker in the peripheral blood. J. Surg. Oncol. 2011; 104:836–840. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.