Pretreatment serum levels of hematopoietic cytokines in patients with colorectal adenomas and cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Hematopoietic cytokines (HCs) regulate the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor cells, and it was proved that HCs can promote cancer growth. The aim of this study is to determine whether HCs might be useful in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer.


METHODS
We compared the serum levels of stem cell factor (SCF), interleukin 3 (IL-3), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) in 97 colorectal cancer patients with those in 35 patients with colorectal adenomas and 65 healthy subjects (control group). Additionally, we investigated commonly accepted tumor markers, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9). HCs were determined using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). CEA and CA 19-9 were measured by microparticle enzyme immunoassay.


RESULTS
Serum levels of GM-CSF, M-CSF, and tumor markers were significantly higher in cancer patients as compared to the control group and adenomas patients. Of these, hematopoietic cytokines were found elevated in the higher proportion of patients than CEA and CA 19-9. The sensitivity of SCF was higher than the sensitivity of other cytokines, but diagnostic specificity and predictive value were highest for M-CSF. Moreover, the M-CSF area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was larger than the areas of other cytokines. The highest values of diagnostic parameters were observed for the combined use of M-CSF with CEA.


CONCLUSIONS
The obtained data support the M-CSF usefulness as a tumor marker for colorectal cancer, especially in combination with CEA.
Mroczko
Barbara
B
Department of Biochemical Diagnostics, Medical University of Bialystok, M. Skłodowska-Curie 24A, 15-276, Biaystok, Poland.
Szmitkowski
Maciej
M
Wereszczyńska-Siemiatkowska
Urszula
U
Okulczyk
Bogna
B
Kedra
Bogusław
B
D000236:Adenoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D016298:Hematopoietic Cell Growth Factors / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016298:Hematopoietic Cell Growth Factors