Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2015; 21(7): 2080-2088
Published online Feb 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i7.2080
Clinical significance and usefulness of soluble heparin binding-epidermal growth factor in gastric cancer
Hye Won Chung, Hoon Young Kong, Jong-Baeck Lim
Hye Won Chung, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon Metropolitan City, Seoul 137-701, South Korea
Hoon Young Kong, Jong-Baeck Lim, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Seoul 120-752, South Korea
Author contributions: Chung HW and Lim JB contributed the conception and design of the study; Chung HW and Lim JB collected and stored all the samples; Kong HY acquired the quantitative data of serum HB-EGF; Chung HW conducted statistical analysis and interpretation of all data; Chung HW and Lim JB drafted the manuscript and revised it critically for important intellectual content; all authors have given final approval of the version to be published; all authors agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Supported by Yonsei University College of Medicine for 2014, No. 3-2014-0115.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jong-Baeck Lim, MD, PhD, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, 211 Eonjuro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 120-752, South Korea. jlim@yuhs.ac
Telephone: +82-2-20193533 Fax: +82-2-20578926
Received: June 2, 2014
Peer-review started: June 2, 2014
First decision: July 21, 2014
Revised: August 2, 2014
Accepted: September 18, 2014
Article in press: September 19, 2014
Published online: February 21, 2015
Processing time: 254 Days and 11.2 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of soluble heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (sHB-EGF) as a serum biomarker for gastric cancer (GC).

METHODS: Serum sHB-EGF levels were measured by a commercially available human HB-EGF ELISA Kit and compared among 60 normal controls, 30 high-risk patients, 37 early gastric cancer (EGC), and 30 advanced gastric cancer (AGC) through ANOVA test. Correlations between serum sHB-EGF and clinicopathological features of GC were analyzed through Spearman’s correlation. The diagnostic performance of serum sHB-EGF for GC was evaluated through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: Serum sHB-EGF levels were significantly higher in AGC group (314.4 ± 127.5 pg/mL) than EGC (165.3 ± 123.2 pg/mL), high-risk (98.7 ± 67.3 pg/mL), and control (94.7 ± 83.6 pg/mL) groups (post-hoc Bonferroni, all P < 0.001), respectively. Serum sHB-EGF levels were also significantly higher in EGC group than high-risk (P = 0.049) and control (P = 0.006) groups. Clinicopathologically, serum sHB-EGF levels closely correlated with depth of invasion (T-stage, γs = 0.669, P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (N-stage, γs = 0.407, P = 0.001), and distant metastasis (M-stage, γs = 0.261, P = 0.030). ROC curve and logistic regression analysis demonstrated a remarkable diagnostic potential of serum sHB-EGF.

CONCLUSION: Serum sHB-EGF is closely correlated with advanced stage GC and can be a promising serological biomarker for GC.

Keywords: Biomarker; Diagnostic; Gastric cancer; Prognostic; Soluble heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor

Core tip: Early detection of gastric cancer (GC) is most important issue. Although endoscopic examination is an ideal, highly reliable technique for early detection of GC, it has limitation because of its high cost and invasiveness. Therefore, inexpensive, comfortable, reliable and less-invasive biomarkers need to be identified. Here, we reported that serum levels of soluble HB-EGF (sHB-EGF) closely correlated with advanced TNM stage and was higher in EGC than high-risk group. We also identified a remarkable diagnostic accuracy of serum sHB-EGF for GC. To our knowledge, this is the first study to validate sHB-EGF as a desirable serum biomarker for GC.