Clinical Significance of plasma TGF-β1 in Patients with Colorectal Cancer: Comparison Perioperative Plasma Level

초록

Purpose: Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is a polypeptide with a wide-ranging effect including cellular proliferation, differentiation, immunosuppression, apoptosis, and matrix remodeling. It has been reported that TGF-β1 is very closely associated with cancer tissues, especially in colorectal cancer. However, it is not well known about the correlation of perioperative level of TGF-β1 in colorectal cancer. In this study, we measured the perioperative plasma levels of TGF-β1 sequentially to evaluate the correlation of TGF-β1 with disease progression in colorectal cancer. Methods: 55 patients who underwent resection of colorectal cancer from Jan. to May of 2001 were included in the study. Plasma levels of TGF-β1 were examined before and 2 weeks after surgical resections of tumor. As for 16 of out of 55 patients, we also examined the plasma TGF-β1 level at least 4 weeks after operation. Plasma TGF-β1 level was measured using the TGF-β1 assay kit. Results: After surgical resection, plasma TGF-β1 levels decreased in the examined 55 patients from 6.19ng/ml to 6.02ng/ml, which however, has no statistical significances(p=0.773). Meanwhile, there was a markedly decreased plasma TGF-β1 level in 16 patients which dropped from 7.02ng/ml, preoperatively to 1.86ng/ml, 4 weeks after operation(p<0.05). Conclusions: The plasma TGF-β1 seems to be decreased after surgical resection in colorectal cancer patients. Thus further studies with a larger number of patients for a longer period are deemed necessary to evaluate the significance of plasma TGF-β1 as a predictive factor in colorectal cancer.