For the analytes associated with active LN, the ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of CSF1, sIL15RA, sCD40, sCX3CL1, caspase 8, sIL18R1, bNGF, and GDNF were 0.873, 0.857, 0.854, 0.832, 0.798, 0.783, 0.780, and 0.778, respectively (Additional file 1: Figure S3b, Table S5b). Here, CASP8 is linked to lobular neoplasia.