Abstract
Observing the alteration of plasma Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) concentration in patients with pancreatic cancer and evaluating its clinical potential for diagnosis. We examined the plasma LPA concentrations by using a LPA assay kit and related parameters of CA19-9, AFP and CEA were measured in 50 patients with pancreatic cancer, 32 patients with benign pancreatic lesions and 36 healthy check-up volunteers. Findings were analyzed and correlation with pathological changes. The LPA concentration was significantly higher in pancreatic cancer patients (4.10±2.03 mol/L) than in patients with benign lesions (3.28±1.26 µmol/L) and healthy controls (2.27±1.02 µmol/L) (p < 0.05). Plasma LPA concentration correlated with serum CA19-9 level (r = 0.9070) in patients with pancreatic cancer. For diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the sensitivity of LPA was 89.6% and the specificity 79. 4%, while the sensitivity of CA19-9 was 91.8% and specificity 84.8%. Statistical analysis showed no difference between the plasma LPA concentration and serum CA19-9 activity. However, alteration of plasma LPA has shown significant correlations with the tumor size, pathological classification, pathological stage, infiltration of capsule cells, surrounding lymph nodes and specific histopathological features. LPA might provide clinical physicians with aditional indicator of diagnosis, metastasis and prognosis, making it a promising biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Our findings suggested that LPA would be a potential target for treatment of pancreatic cancers.
Highlights
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of human digestive system, and like malignancies of the other parts, it is a type of genetic disease in essence
The distribution of the plasma Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) concentrations are shown in table 1, respectively
The LPA concentration was significantly higher in pancreatic cancer patients than in patients with benign lesions and healthy checkup controls
Summary
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of human digestive system, and like malignancies of the other parts, it is a type of genetic disease in essence. The pathogenesis of cancer is characterized by changes in cell growth, survival, differentiation and attachment, leading to uncontrolled tumor growth, invasiveness and metastasis. LPA mediated signal transduction through Edg/LPA receptor induces tumor cell proliferation, adhesion, migration, antiapoptotic function and invasion and metastasis, suggesting a common path in carcinogenesis of various human malignancies [5]. Our previous study suggested that MMPs and platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) participated in the process of invasion and metastasis in human pancreatic cancer. We measured plasma LPA concentration in the pancreatic cancer patients and control subjects and examined the association between the levels of plasma LPA and the tumor size, pathological classification, pathological stage, infiltration of capsule cells, surrounding lymphonoids and specific histopathological features, with focus on evaluation of clinical diagnosis and therapy in human pancreatic cancer
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