A novel role of serum cytochrome c as a tumor marker in patients with operable cancer.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

This study aimed to evaluate serum cytochrome c (cyto-c) levels as a novel role of tumor marker in patients with operable malignant tumors.

METHODS:

Serum cyto-c levels and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) activity were measured in a total of 257 cases (232 malignant and 25 benign). To identify the relationship between serum cyto-c and current tumor markers, six variables, such as gender, age, invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and LD, were analyzed by uni- and multivariate regression analysis methods. The test performance of serum cyto-c for the prediction of malignant behavior was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

RESULTS:

The serum cyto-c level was significantly higher in patients with malignant tumors than patients with benign tumors (20.6 vs. 15.5 ng/mL; P = 0.017, Mann-Whitney U test). No difference in the levels among subtypes of cancer was found, indicating that the change in serum cyto-c levels reflect cancer individually and not specific subtypes of cancer. The survival in patients with serum cyto-c levels over 40 ng/mL was poor (Kaplan-Meier test, P < 0.0001, Hazard ratio 16.76, 95% confidential interval 4.45-63.04). Multiple linear regression analyses disclosed the close association of serum cyto-c levels with invasion (P = 0.0004), metastasis (P = 0.0262) except for regional lymph node metastasis, and activity of serum LD (P < 0.0001), all of which are well known to represent malignant behavior. Conversely, the measurement of serum cyto-c was verified to have excellent diagnostic accuracy of 0.802 and 0.781 for the detection of invasion and metastasis (the area under curves of the constructed ROCs).

CONCLUSION:

Serum cyto-c is a potent tumor marker as a predictor for malignant potential in cancers.

• Authors: Akemi Osaka, Hiroo Hasegawa, Yasuaki Yamada, Katsunori Yanagihara, Tomayoshi Hayashi, Mariko Mine, Muneo Aoyama, Takashi Sawada, Shimeru Kamihira
• Journal: Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology (J Cancer Res Clin Oncol) Vol. 135 Issue 3 Pg. 371-7 (Mar 2009) ISSN: 1432-1335 [Electronic] Germany
• PMID: 18825408 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers, Tumor
• Carcinoembryonic Antigen
• Cytochromes c

Topics

• Aged
• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• Carcinoembryonic Antigen (blood)
• Cytochromes c (blood)
• Disease Progression
• Female
• Humans
• Lymph Nodes (pathology)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Invasiveness
• Neoplasm Metastasis
• Neoplasms (blood, mortality, pathology, surgery)
• Predictive Value of Tests
• Treatment Outcome