Objective: To study the value of serum NGAL and HE4 content change for diagnosing non- small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and evaluating disease progression. Methods: Patients who were diagnosed with NSCLC and underwent surgical resection in the First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College between February 2015 and March 2017 were selected as the NSCLC group, and healthy volunteers who received physical examination over the same period were selected as control group. The NGAL and HE4 contents in serum of NSCLC group and control group as well as the expression of proliferation, apoptosis and invasion genes in NSCLC lesion of NSCLC group were detected. Results: Serum NGAL and HE4 levels of NSCLC group were significantly higher than those of control group, serum NGAL and HE4 levels of patients with TNM II and TNM III NSCLC were significantly higher than those of patients with TNM I NSCLC, and serum NGAL and HE4 levels of patients with TNM III NSCLC were significantly higher than those of patients with TNM II NSCLC; c-myc, Survivin, CatL, Vimentin, Slug and Snail mRNA expression in NSCLC lesion were significantly higher than those in adjacent lesion and positively correlated with serum NGAL and HE4 levels while PTEN, LATS1 and E-cadherin mRNA expression were significantly lower than those in adjacent lesion and negatively correlated with serum NGAL and HE4 levels. Conclusion: Abnormally elevated NGAL and HE4 in the serum of NSCLC patients can evaluate the proliferation and invasion of cancer cells to a certain extent.
