ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Panminerva Medica 1999 June;41(2):125-8

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Plasma thrombomodulin levels in lung cancer patients

Yilmaz T., Akman M., Tutluoglu B.*, Afrasyaop L.**, Goylusun B., Celik N.

From the PTT Hospital, Chest Diseases Department * Istanbul University Lung Diseases and Tuberculosis Institute, Istanbul, Turkey ** PTT Hospital, Biochemistry Department, Istanbul, Turkey

Background. Thrombomodulin (TM) is a gly­co­pro­tein and ­besides its anti­co­ag­u­lant prop­erty it is ­accepted as an ­onco devel­op­mental ­antigen. Considering ­these prop­er­ties we hypo­the­sised ­that ­active TMB ­might ­have a ­role in ­cancer ­cell beha­viour.
Methods. We meas­ured ­serum TMB ­levels by the ­enzyme immu­noassay ­method in 40 ­patients ­with ­lung ­cancer and 20 ­healthy sub­jects.
Results. TMB ­levels ­were ­found as 54.6±11.5 in con­trols and 60.9±31.2 ng/ml in ­lung ­cancer ­patients TM ­levels ­were 59.4±24.2 ng/ml in 24 epi­der­moid car­ci­noma ­patients, 65±50.2 ng/ml in 10 ­small ­cell car­ci­noma ­patients and 60±18.4 ng/ml in 6 aden­o­car­cinoma ­patients. Patients ­with stage 4 and dis­tant metas­tasis had a ­value of 65±33.9 ng/ml. No sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences ­were ­found ­between ­healthy sub­jects and ­cancer ­patients. Also the dif­fer­ences ­between 3 ­groups of ­patients ­were insig­nif­i­cant.
Conclusions. It was con­cluded ­that ­serum TMB ­levels ­could not be ­accepted as a ­tumour ­marker in ­lung ­cancer ­patients.