Ks. Shim et al., INCREASED SERUM LEVELS OF TRANSFORMING GROWTH-FACTOR-ALPHA IN PATIENTS WITH COLORECTAL-CANCER, Diseases of the colon & rectum, 41(2), 1998, pp. 219-224
PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the serum levels of t
ransforming growth factor-alpha in patients with colorectal cancer and
to investigate the clinical significance of these levels in associati
on with tumor stage and histologic differentiation. Also, serum levels
of transforming growth factor-alpha were measured after curative surg
ical resection. METHODS: Serum levels of transforming growth factor-al
pha were measured in 42 consecutive patients with colorectal cancer be
fore surgery, in 21 patients after surgical resection (part of the 42
preoperative patients), and in 20 healthy volunteers. We used TGF-alph
a Assay(TM). RESULTS: Serum levels of transforming growth factor-alpha
in patients with colorectal cancer were significantly higher than in
the healthy control group (P = 0.001). Significant elevations in serum
levels of transforming growth factor-alpha were found in 50 percent (
21/42) of patients with colorectal cancer when the mean + 2 standard d
eviations (80.4 pg/ml) of the control group were used as the upper lim
it of the normal range. Serum levels of transforming growth factor-alp
ha tended to decrease with increasing tumor size (n = 31; r = -0.52; P
= 0.002). Serum levels of transforming growth factor-alpha before sur
gery (89.7 +/- 44.4 pg/ml; n = 21) significantly decreased to 60.3 +/-
19.8 pg/ml after surgical resections of tumors (P = 0.017). Serum lev
els of transforming growth factor-alpha completely decreased to the sa
me serum levels of the control group after surgical resections in all
patients who had serum levels of transforming growth factor-alpha grea
ter than mean + 2 standard deviations (80.4 pg/ml) of the control grou
p preoperatively (n = 11; P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Levels of preoperat
ive transforming growth factor-alpha in patients with colorectal cance
r appeared to be higher than levels measured in control subjects. Seru
m levels of transforming growth factor-alpha before surgery significan
tly decreased after surgical resections of tumors. Additional studies
are warranted to determine if serum levels of transforming growth fact
or-alpha may be useful as a potential biomarker in the management of p
atients with colorectal cancer.