Lemos-González Y, Rodríguez-Berrocal F J, Cordero O J, Gómez C, Páez de la Cadena M
Departamento de Bioquímica, Genética e Inmunología, Universidad de Vigo, As Lagoas-Marcosende s/n, 36310, Vigo, Spain.
Br J Cancer. 2007 May 21;96(10):1569-78. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6603770. Epub 2007 Apr 24.
Serum levels of the soluble epidermal growth factor receptor (sEGFR) and its ligands epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) and amphiregulin (AR) were measured in healthy donors and patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and head and neck carcinoma (HNC). In NSCLC, we found sEGFR and EGF levels significantly lowered in patients with respect to healthy donors. In HNC patients, significantly diminished levels were found in the case of sEGFR, EGF and also AR. In both malignancies, no significant association was found between the serum levels of the molecules and the patients' gender, age or smoking habit. Only a significant association was found between the decrease of sEGFR and the absence of distant metastasis in NSCLC and the tumour stage in HNC. The most interesting result was that combining sEGFR and EGF, sensitivities of 88% in NSCLC and 100% in HNC were reached without losing specificity (97.8% in both cases). The use of discriminant analysis and logistic regression improved the sensitivity for NSCLC and the specificity for HNC. These data demonstrate a potentially interesting value of the serum levels of sEGFR and EGF, especially when combined, as markers for NSCLC and HNC.
在健康供体以及非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）和头颈癌（HNC）患者中测量了可溶性表皮生长因子受体（sEGFR）及其配体表皮生长因子（EGF）、转化生长因子-α（TGF-α）和双调蛋白（AR）的血清水平。在NSCLC患者中，我们发现相对于健康供体，患者的sEGFR和EGF水平显著降低。在HNC患者中，sEGFR、EGF以及AR的水平均显著降低。在这两种恶性肿瘤中，分子的血清水平与患者的性别、年龄或吸烟习惯之间均未发现显著关联。仅在NSCLC中发现sEGFR降低与无远处转移之间以及在HNC中与肿瘤分期之间存在显著关联。最有趣的结果是，联合检测sEGFR和EGF时，NSCLC的敏感性达到88%，HNC的敏感性达到100%，且不失特异性（两种情况均为97.8%）。判别分析和逻辑回归的应用提高了NSCLC的敏感性以及HNC的特异性。这些数据表明sEGFR和EGF的血清水平具有潜在的有趣价值，尤其是联合检测时，可作为NSCLC和HNC的标志物。
