Clinical Significance Of Serum TGF-αand TGF-β1 Detection In Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objectives: As a kind multifunction cytokines, TGF( transforming growth factor) play a key role in cell proliferation,development,transformation and differentiation by integreting with the receptor. In fact, lot's of tumor maybe have the abnormality of the TGF's level and function in each stage of the course of disease. Therefore, to better understand the relation of TGF and the tumor's clinical diagnose,classification,substage and treatment,prognosis, we examined the level of TGF in patients and control's peripheral blood. Radiotherapy(RT) is the most major treatments to cure nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) , and the reason why failed in treatment mainly is relapse in location and metastasis, so it is important to look for some tumor mark to help clinical treatment and reduce relapse or metastasis. This research will analyse the content of transforming growth factor –alpha(TGF-α) and transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1)in nasopharyngeal serum in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its clinical significance. Methords: Blood of vein was collected from 10 controls and 52 newly diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. The content of TGF-αin nasopharyngeal serum was determined by radioimmunoassay(RIA) in 10 controls and 52 newly diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. The content of TGF-β₁ in nasopharyngeal serum was determined by enzyme-lined immuno-sorbent assay(ELISA) in 10 controls and 52 newly diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.Serum samples for TGF-αand TGF-β₁ were obtained before and after RT. Measure and analyse the changes of serum TGF-αand TGF-β₁ levels and the changes were compared with the clinical diagnose,differentiation degree,clinical substage and immediate response to RT. Results The serum TGF-α(16.21+6.67) and TGF-β1 (51.11+16.16) levels in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients before RT were significantly higher than that of healthy control(9.05+1.41;10.91+7.74)(p<0.05).The serum TGF-αlevel in patients with low differentiation degree(16.92+3.17) is higher than that in patients with high differentiation degree(15.77+6.32)(p<0.05). The serum TGF-β1 level in patients with low differentiation degree(44.39+13.67) is higher than that in patients with high differentiation degree(44.05+13.11)(p<0.05). The level of serum TGF-αin patients with stage â… is 11.53+1.06;and that in patients with stage â…¡is 13.69+2.78;and that in patients with stage â…¢is 16.47+6.17;and that in patients with stage â…£is 18.29+7.66.The level of serum TGF-β1 in patients with stage â… is 29.67+4.78;and that in patients with stage â…¡is 37.6+6.76;and that in patients with stage â…¢is 44.79+14.36;and that in patients with stage â…£is 68.17+17.14。Either the level of serum TGF-αin patients with low clinical substage or the level of serum TGF-β1 in patients with low clinical substage is higher than that in patients with high clinical substage, and it has significant difference between each one by ANOVA(analysis of variance)(p<0.05). The serum TGF-α(13.71+6.53)and TGF-β1( 36.78+15.29) levels in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after RT were significantly lower than that before RT(p<0.05). The content of TGF-αwas decreased in the patients of effective group which accounts for 80% while only 33.4% of the patients in the uneffective group. The content of TGF-β1 was decreased in the patients of effective group which accounts for 55% while 55% of the patients in the uneffective group. The changes of the level of serum TGF-αin patients after RT were related to immediate response to RT(p<0.05),but it did not to that of TGF-β1(p>0.05) . Furthermore, no significant correlations were found between the serum TGF levels and the sex and age of patients(p>0.05). Conclusion The levels of TGF-αand TGF-β1 in nasopharyngeal serum in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma were higher than that in control group,and the level was related to the carcinoma differentiation degree and the clinical substage., There is significant correlation between the serum TGF-αlevel and the clinical substage and immediate response to RT, but the correlation with immediate response to RT was not found in the changes of the level of serum TGF-β1in patients after RT. Neither TGF-αnor TGF-β1 serum level has related with the sex and age of the patients. These results suggest that the serum TGF-αand TGF-β1 level measured by RIA and ELISA may be two useful markers to help to clinical diagnose ,monitoring the response and prognosis after RT and a clue to adjuvant treatment in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.