title: TGF-β1 serum concentration as a complementary diagnostic biomarker of lung cancer: establishment of a cut-point value.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Enfermedades Crónico-Degenerativas, Departamento de Biología Molecular y Genómica, Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.
authors.forename: Ana E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: González-Santiago
authors.forename: Luz A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Mendoza-Topete
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Llamas
authors.forename: Rogelio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Troyo-Sanromán
authors.forename: Carmen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Gurrola-Díaz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012372:ROC Curve; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1