Serum hepatocyte growth factor and interleukin-6 levels can distinguish patients with primary or metastatic liver tumors from those with benign liver lesions
Abstract:
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a potent stimulator of angiogenesis and cancer metastasis. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine that can act as an autocrine or paracrine growth factor in various tumor cells. In this study, we investigated the role of serum HGF and IL-6 levels to distinguish primary or metastatic liver tumors from benign liver lesions. Serum HGF and IL-6 levels were measured in 64 cancer patients and 12 healthy controls. Patients were divided into 5 groups: Group-1 (n=24): Breast cancer patients in complete remission without any liver lesion, Group-2 (n=8): Breast cancer patients in complete remission with benign liver lesion, Group-3 (n=10): Breast cancer patients with liver metastasis, Group-4 (n=11): Metastatic breast cancer patients without liver metastasis, Group-5 (n=11): Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Group-6 (n=12): Healthy controls. Serum HGF levels were found to be higher in group-5 (606.4±255.8 pg/ml) than those in group-1 (*305.6±42.3 pg/ml), group-2 (*293.9±44.8 pg/ml), group-4 (**358.4±81.9 pg/ml) and group-6 (*305.8±24.9 pg/ml) (*p0.05). This study showed that primer and metastatic liver tumors had higher serum HGF and IL-6 levels than other patients and controls. Measurements of these markers in serum may be used to distinguish patients with primer liver tumors or breast cancer patients with liver metastasis from those with benign liver lesions or non-metastatic patients.