title: Inflammatory serum proteins are severely altered in metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma patients from the Chinese population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inflammation is one of the major hallmarks of cancer. This study was designed to profile a panel of inflammatory mediators in gastric adenocarcinoma (GA) and to identify their potential differences separately in metastatic and non-metastatic patient subgroups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum samples from 216 GA patients and 333 healthy controls from China were analyzed for six proteins using the Luminex multiplex assay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The serum levels for all the six proteins were significantly elevated in metastatic GA compared to non-metastatic GA. Two acute phase proteins (SAA and CRP) and a CXC chemokine (GRO) were significantly elevated in metastatic GA (p <0.01) but smaller changes were observed in non-metastatic GA compared to healthy controls. OPN is moderately increased in non-metastatic GA (2.05-fold) and more severely elevated in metastatic GA (3.34-fold). Surprisingly, soluble VCAM1 and AGP were significantly lower in both non-metastatic and metastatic GA patients compared to controls. Several individual proteins were shown to possess moderate diagnostic value for non-metastatic GA (AUC = 0.786, 0.833, 0.823 for OPN, sVCAM1 and AGP, respectively) and metastatic GA (AUC = 0.931, 0.720, 0.834 and 0.737 for OPN, sVCAM1, SAA and CRP, respectively). However, protein combinations further improve the diagnostic potential for both non-metastatic GA (best AUC = 0.946) and metastatic GA (best AUC = 0.963). The protein combination with best AUC value for both comparisons is OPN+sVCAM1+AGP+SAA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that several serum proteins are directly related to the severity of gastric cancer. Overall, stronger associations are observed with metastatic than non-metastatic GA as the protein changes are greater with the metastatic status. A combination of these serum proteins may serve as non-invasive markers to assess the severity status and stage of gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Jiangnan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ashok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Mingfang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China; Zhengjiang Jintai Biosciences, Zhengjiang, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Jianzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Boying
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dun
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China; Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xiaoxiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China; Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Minghua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China; Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jin-Xiong
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: She
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Jinhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D001798:Blood Proteins