Biological significance of serum soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor Ⅰ in hepatoma patients

摘要

AIMS In order to elucidate the biological significance of soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor (sTNF R) in hepatomas, we observed the changes of serum sTNF R Ⅰ levels in 83 hepatoma patients and in 61 healthy controls. METHODS The serum levels of soluble sTNF R Ⅰ were measured with sandwich enzyme immunoassay. RESULTS The mean serum sTNF R Ⅰ levels were significantly more increased in the hepatoma patients than those in the controls (2.69±0.79 μg/L vs 0.93 ±0.29 μg/L, P < 0.001). The increment correlated well with the staging of the disease, i.e. the serum levels of soluble sTNF R Ⅰ in the patients with Ⅲ-Ⅳ stages were greater than those with Ⅰ - Ⅱ stages (2.97±0.43 μg/L vs 1.75±0.41 μg/L, P < 0.001). Also, we found the increase in sTNF R Ⅰ level correlated positively with serum alkaline phosphatase (r = 0.59), the white cell count (r = 0.43) and serum globulin (r = 0.32), and correlated negatively with serum albumin (r= -0.71). Among the hepatoma patients, the frequency of increase in the serum sTNF R Ⅰ level (89.16%) greatly exceeds that of serum AFP, (54.22%). Moreover, in 25 patients before and after chemotherapy, the rise of sTNF R Ⅰ showed lack of Clinical response (3.39 ± 0.43 μg/L vs 2.67 ± 0.34 μg/L, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the serum soluble sTNF R Ⅰ levels in the hepatoma patients correlate well with the stages of the disease and the re-sponses to chemotherapy. It is reasonable to postulate that this determination can serve as an aid in the detec-tion of the cancers, in the follow-up studies, and in the assessments of the prognoses.