Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Winter;3(1):27-34.

Evaluation of Pre-Treatment Serum Levels of IL-7 and GM-CSF in Colorectal Cancer Patients

Mehdi Taghipour Fard Ardekani  1 , Mahyar Malekzadeh  1 , Seyed Vahid Hosseini  2 , Elahe Bordbar  1 , Mehrnoosh Doroudchi  3 , Abbas Ghaderi  3
Affiliations

Evaluation of Pre-Treatment Serum Levels of IL-7 and GM-CSF in Colorectal Cancer Patients

Mehdi Taghipour Fard Ardekani et al. Int J Mol Cell Med. 2014 Winter.

Abstract

Survival of Colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is considerably stage-dependent; therefore, early diagnosis is a pivotal factor in decreasing mortality and morbidity associated with this cancer. GM-CSF and IL-7 are reported to increase in different cancers and we aimed to investigate the pre-treatment serum levels of GM-CSF and IL-7 in Iranian patients with colorectal cancer. 127 patients (68 males and 59 females) entered this study before receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A control group of 50 healthy age/sex matched individuals (27 males and 23 females) were included in the study. The serum levels of GM-CSF and IL-7 were measured using commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assays. A significantly higher level of GM-CSF was found in the sera of patients with colorectal cancer compared to healthy age/sex matched controls (P=0.013). However, there was no significant difference between the levels of IL-7 in sera of patients and controls. We observed a significant elevation in the level of GM-CSF in poorly differentiated tumors (P=0.024). Also a significant correlation between lymphatic invasion and the level of GM-CSF in sera of CRC patients was detected (P=0.01). We found an increase of the level of IL-7 in four patients presenting moderate stages of tumor concomitant with a decrease of the level of GM-CSF. It can be concluded that the increase of the level of GM-CSF is accompanied by CRC progression in Iranian patients. Potential therapeutic effect of IL-7 in this disease, however, needs further investigations.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; GM-CSF; IL-7; serum.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
The comparison of the IL-7 and GM-CSF levels between patients and controls. The median values are shown by black lines in the graphics
Fig 2
Fig 2
Levels of IL-7 and GM-CSF in patients with different stages of tumors. An increase in the level of IL-7 in the medium stage of colorectal tumors was accompanied by a decrease in the level of GM-CSF
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Boyle P, Leon ME. Epidemiology of colorectal cancer. Br Med Bull . 2002;64:1–25. - PubMed
    1. Banerjea A, Ahmed S, Hands RE, et al. Colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability display mRNA expression signatures characteristic of increased immunogenicity. Mol Cancer. 2004;3:21. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Calatayud S, Warner TD, Mitchell JA. Modulation of colony stimulating factor release and apoptosis in human colon cancer cells by anticancer drugs. Br J Cancer . 2002;86:1316–21. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Whicher IT, Banks RE. Cytokines as tumour markers. Scand J Clin Lab Invest Suppl . 1995;221:122–44. - PubMed
    1. Demirci U, Coskun U, Sancak B, et al. Serum granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor: a tumor marker in colorectal carcinoma? Asian Pac J Cancer Prev . 2009;10:1021–4. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources