Abstract:Objective Toevaluatetheclinicalvalueofextracellularheatshockprotein90α(eHsp90α)indistinguishing betweenbenignand malignantpleuraleffusion (PE).Methods Atotalof80inpatientscomplicatedbyPEinShaanxi ProvincialCancerHospitalandShaanxiProvincialPeople'sHospitalfrom April2017toJune2018 wereenrolled.Among them,50patientswithmalignancieswereassignedtothestudygroup,while30patientswithbenigndiseasesservedasthe controlgroup.Enzyme-linkedimmunosorbentassay (ELISA)wasemployedtomeasureheatshockprotein90α(Hsp90α) andlactatedehydrogenase(LDH)levelsinPEfrombothgroups.Receiveroperatingcharacteristic(ROC)curveanalysiswas conductedtoassessthediagnosticefficacyofHsp90α,LDH,andtheircombinationindifferentiatingmalignantfrombenign PE(BPE).Results ThelevelofHsp90αinthestudygroupwassignificantlyhigherthanthatinthecontrolgroup[187.90 (68.68,334.97)μg/Lvs.3.90 (1.24,44.47)μg/L;P <0.05].ThelevelofLDHinthestudygroup waselevated comparedtothatinthecontrolgroup[302.00(159.00,450.00)U/Lvs.126.00(103.50,251.00)U/L;P<0.05].ROC analysisrevealedanoptimaldiagnosticcutoffvalueof16.88μg/LforHsp90αinindentifying MPE,withanareaunderthe curve(AUC)of0.900 (95% CI:0.793-0.963),asensitivityof100%,andaspecificityof73.33%.Nosignificant differenceindiagnosticefficacywasobservedbetweenHsp90αaloneanditscombinationwithLDH (P>0.05).Conclusion The levelofHsp90αinMPEissignificantlyelevatedcomparedtothatinBPE.ThedetectionofHsp90αaloneorincombination withLDHdemonstratesrobustdiagnosticperformancefordifferentiating MPEfrom BPE.Thus,Hsp90αmayserveasan auxiliarybiomarkerforidentifyingmalignantPE.