RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Comparison between mesothelin and fibulin-3 detection in pleural malignant mesothelioma (MPM) patients JF European Respiratory Journal JO Eur Respir J FD European Respiratory Society SP PA5075 DO 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA5075 VO 48 IS suppl 60 A1 Pinelli, Valentina A1 Fini, Donatella A1 Battolla, Enrico A1 Ferro, Paola A1 Franceschini, Maria Cristiana A1 Fontana, Vincenzo A1 Pistillo, Maria Pia A1 Roncella, Silvio A1 Canessa, Pier Aldo YR 2016 UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/48/suppl_60/PA5075.abstract AB Background: MPM is an asbestos-related tumour with a poor prognosis. Pleural effusion (PE) is often the primary manifestation and can be found in about 95% of MPM at diagnosis. PE is obtained by thoracentesis and it may be important for initial diagnosis. A reliable diagnostic biomarker for MPM is an area of intense research. Among the biomarkers, soluble mesothelin-related peptide (SMRP) and fibulin-3 (FBL-3) have received considerable attention. In the present study, we compared the diagnostic performances of SMRP and FBL-3 detection in the same effusions taken at the time of diagnosis.Methods: the study was performed in 33 patients with MPM, 64 with pleural benign lesions (BNG) and 23 with non-MPM pleural metastases (MTS). All patients had developed a PE and underwent thoracentesis. PE were processed by centrifugation and stored at -20°C until SMRP and FBL-3 analysis was performed. All pleural effusion samples were tested in duplicate.Results: patients with MPM were found to have higher SMRP-median levels in effusion than patients with PE form other pathologies (MPM-median = 22.5 nM; Mts+Bng-median = 4.8 nM; P-value < 0.001). In contrast, the FBL-3 levels in MPM were not higher than the levels in non-MPM patients (MPM-median = 63.0 ng/ml; MTS+BNG-median = 72.6 ng/ml; P-value = 0.174).Next, we assessed the diagnostic accuracy of SMRP and FBL-3 biomarkers by using the ROC analysis. The results showed that SMRP outperformed FBL-3.Conclusion: the present study confirms that SMRP is a good diagnostic marker for MPM effusion as opposed to FBL-3 which proved not to be a valuable marker. In addition, FBL-3 does not add any information to the determination of the SMRP in effusion.