Clinical significance of serum KLF7 and CA15-3 in the diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of cervical cancer

WANG Jin; LIU Shujun; JIANG Tiancong

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-0460.2025.02.009

Abstract：Objective To explore the clinical significance of serum levels of Krüppel-like factor 7(KLF7)and carbohydrate antigen 15-3(CA15-3)in the early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of cervical cancer.Methods A total of 127 newly diagnosed patients with cervical cancer(cervical cancer group)and 89 patients with benign cervical lesions(benign cervical lesion group)admitted to our hospital from March 2020 to March 2022 were regarded as the research subjects,and 76 healthy individuals who underwent physical examination were as the healthy control group.Follow-up to deadline,the patients were divided into survival group and death group,106 cases and 21 cases respectively.The clinical characteristic data of cervical cancer patients were collected.ELISA method was applied to detect the expression level of KLF7 in serum of each group,and ECLIA method was applied to detect the level of CA15-3 in serum.The relationship between serum KLF7,CA15-3 levels and clinical pathological characteristics of cervical cancer patients was analyzed.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was applied to evaluate the diagnostic value of KLF7 and CA15-3 levels for cervical cancer and their predictive value for poor prognosis.Results The serum levels of KLF7 and CA15-3 in the cervical cancer group were greatly higher than those in the benign lesion group and healthy control group(P＜0.05);the serum KLF7 and CA15-3 levels in patients with FIGO stage ⅡA,cervical infiltration depth ≥2/3,HPV infection,lymph node metastasis,and poorly differentiated cervical cancer were higher than those in patients with stage Ⅱ A-Ⅰ B,cervical infiltration depth＜2/3,no HPV infection,no lymph node metastasis,and medium to high differentiation(P＜0.05).The serum levels of KLF7 and CA15-3 in the death group were obviously higher than those in the survival group(P＜0.05).ROC curve analysis results showed that the combined detection of serum KLF7 and CA15-3 levels was better than the single detection of the two in diagnosing cervical cancer and predicting poor prognosis(P＜0.05).Cox regression analysis showed that low differentiation,FIGO stage Ⅱ A,HPV infection,cervical infiltration depth ≥ 2/3,lymph node metastasis,and elevated levels of KLF7 and CA15-3 were independent risk factors for prognosis in cervical cancer patients(P＜0.05).Conclusion The serum levels of KLF7 and CA15-3 in cervical cancer patients are greatly elevated.The combined detection of the two has high diagnostic value for cervical cancer,and their levels are closely related to the clinical pathological characteristics and prognosis of cervical cancer patients.