Serum active hepatocyte growth factor (AHGF) in benign prostatic disease and prostate cancer.
BACKGROUND
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is secreted as an inactive single-chain precursor called pro-HGF. Pro-HGF is converted to an active two-chain form by HGF activator and matriptase. We attempted to clarify whether serum levels of active HGF (AHGF) could be used as a marker of prostate cancer.


METHODS
Serum levels of AHGF and total HGF (THGF; pro-HGF + AHGF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 38 patients with benign prostatic disease and 160 patients with prostate cancer.


RESULTS
Serum levels of AHGF in patients with untreated prostate cancer (0.37 +/- 0.12 ng/ml) were significantly higher than those in patients with benign prostatic disease (0.28 +/- 0.08 ng/ml) (P = 0.0001). Serum AHGF levels were increased in patients with stage D or D3 compared with stage B. In addition, there were significant differences in serum AHGF levels between patients with well-differentiated and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Furthermore, the mean serum AHGF/THGF ratio in patients with stage D3 prostate cancer was significantly higher than that in patients with stage B.


CONCLUSIONS
AHGF may be a potential tumor marker for prostate cancer. Further studies in large groups of patients are needed to define the clinical value of AHGF.
Yasuda
Kenji
K
Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Japan. kenji@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
Nagakawa
Osamu
O
Akashi
Takuya
T
Fujiuchi
Yasuyoshi
Y
Koizumi
Keiichi
K
Komiya
Akira
A
Saiki
Ikuo
I
Fuse
Hideki
H
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018450:Disease Progression; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011469:Prostatic Diseases / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D053491:Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory / Q000097:blood; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053491:Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory; C109149:SPINT1 protein, human; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor