Bao Y, Zhang W, Shi D, et al. - Researchers investigated the associations between serum tumor markers and connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD), as well as assessed the clinical utility of tumor markers for inquiring interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients suffering from connective tissue disease (CTD). They analyzed 235 patients with CTD (90 CTD without ILDs, 145 CTD-ILD). They found a significant difference between CTD with or without ILD as well as higher concentrations of tumor markers evident in the CTD-ILD group, including carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9, carcinoembryonic antigen, CA153, and CYFRA21-1 (cytokeratin 19 fragments). Findings revealed the presence of a positive correlation between serum tumor marker concentrations and CTD-ILD. An elevated risk of developing ILD was indicated by higher levels of CA153 and CYFRA21-1, and these thus may represent valuable biomarkers for identifying CTD-ILD in the clinical setting.