Objective To explore the changes of proteomic spectra from plasma of patients with lung cancer or benign lung diseases and health controls in order to establish a primary diagnosis model of lung cancer. Methods The proteomic spectra from plasma of 108 patients with lung cancer, 40 patients with benign lung diseases and 22 healthy individuals were analysed by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry ( SELDI-TOF-MS). The best decision tree model was established by cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Then the model was blindly validated by the protein of 21 patients with lung benign diseases and 47 patients with stage I lung cancer. Results Twenty-three significantly differentially expressed protein peaks were successfully detected (P <0.001). Blinded validation suggested that the accuracy for diagnosing lung cancer was 72. 06%, the sensitivity and specificity were 72. 34% and 71.43%, respectively, and the positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 85. 0% and 78. 95%, respectively. Conclusion SELDI-TOF-MS protein chip technology provides a new tool for the early diagnosis of lung cancer.

BACKGROUNDDendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy is a new approach and effective for some malignant tumors. The aim of this study is to observe the efficacy and toxicity of immunotherapy with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) peptide-pulsed DCs in patients with refractory advanced lung cancer.

METHODSLung cancer patients with high CEA expression were enrolled into this project. Autologous DCs were generated from patients' plastic-adherent peripheral blood mononuclear cells and loaded with CEA 5 days later. Cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) were cultured from non-adherent peripheral blood mononuclear cells. DCs and CIK were transfused to patients. Responses and toxicities were observed.

RESULTSA total of 22 patients with lung cancer received DCs immunotherapy. DCs doses were 2.5×10⁶-9.6×10⁷ (5.03×10⁶). CIK doses were 3.4×10⁸-46×10⁸. CD3, CD8, NK and IFN-γ levels obviously increased after treatment (P < 0.05). The 1-year survival rate was 68.2% (15/22). Main toxicities were fever and rash.

CONCLUSIONSDCs-based immunotherapy is feasible and safe to patients with lung cancer.