Diagnostic significance of serum eotaxin-1 level in gastric cancer patients

Abstract

Introduction. Gastric cancer is the second cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Delayed diagnosis leads to high mortality rates. Eotaxin-1 was originally discovered as an eosinophil-selective chemoattractant and may play a role in a number of chronic inflammatory diseases, cancer, and other gastrointestinal disorders.The aim of this study was to analyse diagnostic and prognostic significance of serum eotaxin-1 (s-eotaxin-1) levels in gastric cancer. Methods. Sixty gastric cancer patients and 69 healthy subjects were included into the study. S-eotaxin-1 levels were compared with clinicopathological features and outcomes in gastric cancer. Results. Serum levels of eotaxin-1 in gastric cancer patients were significantly higher than controls (74.51 ± 16.65 pg/mL versus 16.79 ± 5.52 pg/mL, respectively (P < 0.001)). The s-eotaxin-1 levels did not differ significantly with histopathological grade, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, tumor localization, lymph node metastases, positive lymph node ratio, size, perineural and perivascular invasion. So there is no relationship found between s-eotaxin-1 level and prognosis. Conclusion. S-eotaxin-1 levelsmay be used as an easily available biomarker for gastric cancer risk and may alert physicians for early diagnosis. Due to the limited number of patients included in this study, larger cohort studies are warranted to validate the diagnostic value of s-eotaxin-1 level in gastric cancer. Copyright © 2013 Peter Kruzliak et al.