VALIDATION OF AN ALGORITHM ABLE TO DIFFERENTIATE SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER (SCLC) FROM NON-SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER (NSCLC) PATIENTS BY MEANS OFA TUMOR-MARKER PANEL - ANALYSIS OF THE ERRORS

By means of a mathematical score previoulsy generated by discriminant analysis on 90 lung cancer patients, a new and larger group of 261 sub jects [209 with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 52 with small-c ell lung cancer (SCLC)] was analysed to confirm the ability of the met hod to distinguish between these two types of cancers. The score, whic h included the serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and CYFRA-21.1 leve ls, permitted correct classification of 93% of the patients. When the misclassifications were analysed in detail, the most frequent errors w ere associated with limited disease SCLC with low NSE levels and with advanced NSCLC with high NSE levels. This demonstrates the importance of the marker in correctly categorizing patients.