TGF-beta1 serum concentration as a complementary diagnostic biomarker of lung cancer: establishment of a cut-point value.

摘要

Lung cancer is a malignant disease with increasing mortality rates. Cytokines play a role in normal cell growth regulation and differentiation and are also implicated in malignant disease. Among these cytokines, Transforming Growth Factor beta type 1 (TGF-beta1) acts as a tumor promoter in malignant cells. Several clinical studies have found high levels of TGF-beta1 in various cancer types. The aim of this study was to establish a TGF-beta1 cut-off point as a complementary diagnostic tool in lung cancer detection. Therefore, 72 clinically well-characterized individuals were studied, 41 lung cancer patients and 31 healthy subjects. Serum TGF-beta1 concentration was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We compared statistically the serum TGF-beta1 concentration between both groups with analysis of variance, linear regression and receiver operating curve analysis. We observed that lung cancer patients produced higher TGF-beta1 levels than healthy individuals (37,225+/-9,436 vs. 28,416+/-9,324 pg/ml, P<0.001). The cut-point diagnostic value was 30,500 pg/ml with 80.5% sensitivity, 64.5% specificity and odds ratio: 7.5, 95% CI: 2.6-21.8. Conclusions: We found significantly higher TGF-beta1 levels in lung cancer patients than in healthy individuals. We propose the measurement of serum TGF-beta1 levels as a complementary diagnostic test in lung cancer detection.