Assessment of a panel of tumor markers for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant effusions by well-based reverse phase protein array

Table 1 Median titers of tumor markers in study groups

Tumor Markers^a	Malignant (n = 46)	Probable Malignant^b (n = 32)	Benign (n = 36)	P value^c
MUC1	0.355 (0.081-1.830)	0.073 (0.043-0.096)	0.074 (0.046-0.217)	< 0.001
EMA	0.131 (0.043-0.810)	0.038 (0.030-0.050)	0.052 (0.038-0.095)	< 0.001
Pan-CK	0.059 (0.031-0.188)	0.024 (0.017-0.080)	0.039 (0.025-0.118)	0.003
HSP90	0.206 (0.167-0.258)	0.178 (0.133-0.231)	0.184 (0.148-0.246)	0.172
TGF-β	0.128 (0.113-0.145)	0.171 (0.132-0.220)	0.156 (0.133-0.186)	0.005
CA125	0.149 (0.064-0.269)	0.121 (0.057-0.213)	0.148 (0.070-0.242)	0.258

Data are presented as median (quartiles)
^aAfter normalization with GAPDH level, relative expressional signals were represented as a ratio (tumor marker/GAPDH)
^bNo malignant effusion but history of malignancy
^cSignificance level of Kruskal-Wallis test

ISSN: 1746-1596