title: Serum cathepsin H as a potential prognostic marker in patients with colorectal cancer.
abstract: Cathepsin H is a lysosomal cysteine protease that may participate in tumor progression. In order to evaluate its potential as a prognostic marker, its protein levels were measured by ELISA in preoperative sera from 324 patients with colorectal cancer. The level of cathepsin H was significantly increased in patient sera, the median level was 8.4 ng/mL versus 2.1 ng/mL in 90 healthy blood donors (p < 0.0001). A weak association of cathepsin H levels was found with patient age (p = 0.02) but not with Dukes' stage, sex, or the level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). In survival analysis a significant difference was found between the group of patients with low cathepsin H (first tertile) who had a poor prognosis and the remaining patients (p = 0.03). The risk of patients was further stratified when cathepsin H levels were combined with CEA. Patients with high CEA and low cathepsin H had the highest risk of death with a hazard ratio of 2.72 (95% CI 1.73-4.28), p < 0.0001. Our results show that the prognostic information of cathepsin H differs from that of the related cathepsins B and L and suggest different roles during the progression of malignant disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schweiger
authors.forename: I J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Brünner
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000096:biosynthesis; D002401:Cathepsin B / Q000378:metabolism; D056655:Cathepsin H; D056668:Cathepsin L; D002403:Cathepsins / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D002403:Cathepsins; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; D002401:Cathepsin B; C534281:CTSL protein, human; D056668:Cathepsin L; C534126:CTSH protein, human; D056655:Cathepsin H