226P - Clinical Significance of Elevated Serum Levels of Cc Thymus and Activation-Related Chemokine in Primary Gastric Cancer: Potential for a Serum Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aim: Chemokines and their receptors are involved in various processes of tumor cell biology. CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), a receptor for thymus and activation-related chemokine (TARC, CCL17), is overexpressed in solid tumors including gastric cancer (GC), and its ligand, TARC, is considered to be a potent stimulator of GC cell proliferation and migration. Here, we evaluate the clinical significance of elevated serum TARC in GC patients and validate its potential as a biomarker for GC. Methods: Serum levels of TARC, MDC (CCL22), MCP-1 (CCL2), and SCF were measured by chemiluminescent immunoassay, and compared among 4 disease groups; normal, high-risk, early GC (EGC), and advanced GC (AGC) groups (each, n = 25) along the gastric carcinogenic sequences (one-way ANOVA) in training set. Serum levels of TARC and SCF were re-evaluated in following independent validation set (90 normal, 30 high-risk, 50 EGC, 50 AGC) and compared with serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels. To evaluate the diagnostic potential of serum TARC for GC, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated and logistic regression analysis was performed. Correlations of serum TARC with clinicopathological parameters of GC were evaluated by Spearman's correlation. Results: In training set, serum TARC and SCF were significantly correlated with each other and different between cancer and non-cancer conditions (each, p Conclusions: Serum TARC is a potential serologic biomarker for GC superior to CEA. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.