Increased Plasma Levels of Pentraxin 3 Are Associated with Poor Prognosis of Colorectal Carcinoma Patients

Increased Plasma Levels of Pentraxin 3 Are Associated with Poor Prognosis of Colorectal Carcinoma Patients

JIE ZHANG,¹ TAI-YONG WANG² and XUE-CAI NIU³

¹Department of General Surgery, Dezhou People's Hospital, Dezhou, Shandong Province, China
²Department of Oncology, Dezhou People's Hospital, Dezhou, Shandong Province, China
³Department of Radiology, Jinan Fourth People's Hospital, Jinan, Shandong Province, China

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is one of the most common cancers globally. It is essential to identify a prognostic predictor for CRC. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a glycoprotein that is secreted by a variety of human cells. It plays an important role in inflammation and immune regulation. Increasing evidence reveals that elevated PTX3 expression is related to poor prognosis in various cancers. The aim of the study was to determine the usefulness of plasma PTX3 level as a prognostic predictor in CRC. Total 184 CRC patients and 216 controls were included. Plasma levels of PTX3 were determined using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. On admission, plasma PTX3 levels in CRC patients were higher than those in controls (11.8 ± 2.5 ng/ml vs. 3.1 ± 0.9 ng/ml, P < 0.001). After resection, plasma PTX3 levels in patients were decreased (6.0 ± 1.4 ng/ml, P = 0.007), and were elevated at the time of relapse (10.8 ± 2.8 ng/ml, P < 0.001). During the 60-month follow-up period, 108 patients suffered from relapse. Plasma PTX3 levels of ≥ 12 ng/ml on admission were associated with relapse (OR: 3.11, 95% CI: 1.74 ~ 6.29), and tumor-free survival rate in those patients with plasma PTX3 levels of ≥ 12 ng/ml was lower than that in other patients (P = 0.001). Furthermore, plasma PTX3 levels on admission showed positive linear correlations with plasma complement 3, 4 and 5b9 levels (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001). Therefore, we propose that PTX3 is an independent prognostic indicator in CRC.

keywords —— colorectal carcinoma; complement; pentraxin 3; prognosis; relapse

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2016, 240, 39-46

Correspondence: Tai-Yong Wang, Department of Oncology, Dezhou People's Hospital, No.1751, Xinhu Street, Dezhou, Shandong Province 253014, China.

e-mail: taiyong446688@126.com