title: Plasma adrenomedullin levels and nasopharyngeal carcinoma prognosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adrenomedullin has been identified as a tumor growth factor. However, few studies have reported its relationship with cancer survival. We evaluated the prognostic value of pretreatment plasma adrenomedullin levels in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Plasma adrenomedullin levels of 258 NPC patients and 100 healthy controls were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Adverse event was defined as tumor progression or death from any cause during 5-year follow-up. The relationships between plasma adrenomedullin levels and 5-year mortality, adverse event, tumor-free survival and overall survival were evaluated using multivariate analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pretreatment plasma adrenomedullin levels were substantially higher in patients than in healthy subjects and were correlated highly with tumor classification, lymph node classification and tumor node metastasis stage positively. Adrenomedullin was identified as an independent predictor of 5-year mortality, adverse event, tumor-free survival and overall survival. Based on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, pretreatment plasma adrenomedullin level had high predictive value for 5-year mortality and adverse event and had high diagnostic value for NPC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adrenomedullin may be a reliable biomarker for predicting the long-term prognosis of patients with NPC and also has potential diagnostic utility for NPC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou 310003, PR China. Electronic address: wnjyuuh@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhi-Li
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Hangzhou Hospital, 261 Huansha Road, Hangzhou 310006, PR China.
authors.forename: Shui-Xian
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou 310003, PR China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou 310003, PR China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chai
mesh_terms: D053607:Adrenomedullin / Q000097:blood*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002277:Carcinoma; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053607:Adrenomedullin
keywords: Adrenomedullin; Biomarker; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Prognosis