Open AccessTGF‐β1 serum concentration as a complementary diagnostic biomarker of lung cancer: establishment of a cut‐point value
Author(s) -
GonzálezSantiago Ana E.,
MendozaTopete Luz A.,
SánchezLlamas Francisco,
TroyoSanromán Rogelio,
GurrolaDíaz Carmen M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of clinical laboratory analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1098-2825
pISSN - 0887-8013
DOI - 10.1002/jcla.20465
Subject(s) - lung cancer , transforming growth factor , medicine , cancer , receiver operating characteristic , biomarker , lung , gastroenterology , oncology , pathology , biology , biochemistry
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 β type 1 (TGF‐β1) acts as a tumor promoter in malignant cells. Several clinical studies have found high levels of TGF‐β1 in various cancer types. The aim of this study was to establish a TGF‐β1 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‐β1 concentration was measured by an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We compared statistically the serum TGF‐β1 concentration between both groups with analysis of variance, linear regression and receiver operating curve analysis. We observed that lung cancer patients produced higher TGF‐β1 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‐β1 levels in lung cancer patients than in healthy individuals. We propose the measurement of serum TGF‐β1 levels as a complementary diagnostic test in lung cancer detection. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 25:238–243, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.