Yilmaz O, Eroglu A, Dag E, Karaoglanoglu N, Yilmaz A
Department of Gastroenterology, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
Int J Clin Pract. 2006 Dec;60(12):1604-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-1241.2006.00854.x. Epub 2006 May 16.
Tumour markers are used for diagnosis, staging, evaluation of response to treatment, prognosis and detection of recurrences in clinical oncology. In this study, we aim to investigate the levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-III in cases with oesophageal carcinoma. We investigated their possible use as tumour markers and their relation to other tumour markers. Forty patients who were diagnosed as having oesophageal carcinoma by histopathological evaluation of endoscopic biopsies between January 2003 and July 2004 and 40 healthy people as the control group were included in the study. The serum levels of tumour markers including IGF-I, IGFBP-III, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 were measured in both groups. Data were compared statistically, and the importance of IGF-I and IGFBP-III levels were investigated in cases with oesophageal carcinoma. IGF-I levels were significantly higher in patients with oesophageal carcinoma when compared with the control group (p < 0.05), whereas IGFBP-III levels were significantly lower (p < 0.05). The increase in CEA levels was not statistically significant when compared with the control group. The increase in CA 19-9 levels was statistically significant when compared with the control group (p < 0.05). No correlation was detected between levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-III and levels of CEA and CA 19-9. We suggest that the serum IGF-I level may be used as a tumour marker in oesophageal carcinoma. A low level of serum IGFBP-III is also significant in cases with oesophageal carcinoma. We believe that drugs which inhibit IGF-I function or which stimulate the function of IGFBP-III may open new horizons in extra-surgical modalities for the treatment of oesophageal cancer.
肿瘤标志物用于临床肿瘤学的诊断、分期、治疗反应评估、预后判断及复发检测。在本研究中，我们旨在调查食管癌患者胰岛素样生长因子（IGF）-I和IGF结合蛋白（IGFBP）-III的水平。我们研究了它们作为肿瘤标志物的潜在用途及其与其他肿瘤标志物的关系。本研究纳入了2003年1月至2004年7月间经内镜活检组织病理学评估确诊为食管癌的40例患者以及作为对照组的40名健康人。两组均检测了包括IGF-I、IGFBP-III、癌胚抗原（CEA）和糖类抗原（CA）19-9在内的肿瘤标志物血清水平。对数据进行统计学比较，并研究IGF-I和IGFBP-III水平在食管癌患者中的重要性。与对照组相比，食管癌患者的IGF-I水平显著升高（p<0.05），而IGFBP-III水平显著降低（p<0.05）。与对照组相比，CEA水平的升高无统计学意义。与对照组相比，CA 19-9水平的升高具有统计学意义（p<0.05）。未检测到IGF-I和IGFBP-III水平与CEA和CA 19-9水平之间的相关性。我们建议血清IGF-I水平可作为食管癌的肿瘤标志物。血清IGFBP-III水平降低在食管癌患者中也具有重要意义。我们认为抑制IGF-I功能或刺激IGFBP-III功能的药物可能为食管癌的非手术治疗开辟新的前景。
