A clinical evaluation of serum concentrations of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 in patients with gastric cancer.

AIM

To investigate the correlation between the serum soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and the clinicopathologic features and to evaluate the possible prognostic significance of sICAM-1 concentration in gastric cancer.METHODS: Thirty-four patients with gastric cancer were prospectively included and evaluated. Venous blood samples were collected before the surgery. Sera were obtained by centrifugation, and store at -30 degree until assay. The control group consisted of 20 healthy volunteers. Serum concentrations of ICAM-1 were measured with the quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay technic. Differences between the two groups were analyzed by Student's t test. x+2s of normal control sICAM-1 was taken as upper limit to calculate the positive rates.RESULTS:The mean value of serum ICAM-1 in patients with gastric cancer was 367.7&mgr;g/L plus minus 104.7&mgr;g/L and that of control group was 236.9&mgr;g/L plus minus 74.3&mgr;g/L, and the difference was significant (P < 0.001). The patients with tumor size of > = 5cm had significantly higher serum concentrations of sICAM-1 than those with smaller ones (406.7&mgr;g/L plus minus 90.2&mgr;g/L vs 319.9&mgr;g/L plus minus 105.3&mgr;g/L,P <0.01). Compared with stages I-II gastric cancer patients, patients with more advanced clinical stage (III-IIV) had higher levels of sICAM-1 (397.1&mgr;g/L plus minus 102.4&mgr;g/L vs 306.0&mgr;g/L plus minus 82.3&mgr;g/L,P <0.05).Difference was significant statistically in sICAM-1 levels between patients with positive lymph node status and those without lymph node involvement (403.6&mgr;g/L plus minus 99.7&mgr;g/L vs 302.7&mgr;g/L plus minus 81.4&mgr;g/L,P <0.01). No relation was observed between the level of sICAM-1 and grade of histological differentiation in the patients with gastric cancer.CONCLUSION:Serum sICAM-1 concentration may be a valuable parameter for predicting the prognosis and degree of the gastric cancer.