title: Elevated levels of serum fatty acid synthase in patients with gastric carcinoma.
abstract: Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. It is important to develop biomarkers for detecting new cancers at an early stage and for treating them early during recurrence in order to guide optimal treatment. Fatty acid synthase (FAS) is highly expressed in numerous human cancers and thus could potentially serve as such a biomarker, but the potential utility of measuring FAS for detecting gastric cancer has not been previously investigated. The aim of the present study was to provide a preliminary assessment of serum FAS as a marker of gastric carcinoma. The study included 47 patients with gastric cancer and 150 healthy subjects. Blood samples were collected from each cancer patient prior to treatment. Serum FAS levels were measured by ELISA and compared across the two groups of patients. Significantly higher levels of serum FAS were found in the gastric cancer patients [95% confidence interval (CI), 30.37-52.46] compared with the healthy controls (95% CI, 1.331-2.131), with elevated levels even in patients with early-stage tumors. These results indicate that measuring serum FAS levels has strong potential to provide a biomarker for the detection of gastric cancer, with high sensitivity and specificity.
authors: Department of Surgery, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors: Tomoaki
authors: T
authors: Ito
authors: Department of Surgery, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors: Koichi
authors: K
authors: Sato
authors: Department of Surgery, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Maekawa
authors: Department of Surgery, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors: Mutsumi
authors: M
authors: Sakurada
authors: Department of Surgery, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors: Hajime
authors: H
authors: Orita
authors: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Kazunori
authors: K
authors: Shimada
authors: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Daida
authors: Department of Pathology, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors: Ryo
authors: R
authors: Wada
authors: Department of Pathology and Oncology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Masaaki
authors: M
authors: Abe
authors: Department of Pathology and Oncology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Okio
authors: O
authors: Hino
authors: Department of Esophageal and Gastroenterological Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Yoshiaki
authors: Y
authors: Kajiyama
keywords: fatty acid synthase; gastric cancer