Detection and clinical significance of thrombomodulin in both plasma and tissue extracts of cancer patients

Abstract

Objective: To study the changes of thrombomodulin (TM) in both plasma and tissue extracts of cancer patients for evaluating its clinical significance. Methods: Plasma TM levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in both plasma of 188 cancer patients and 24 cancer tissue extracts including their adjacent non-cancer tissues. Results: The plasma TM levels both in cancer patients and in metastasis patients were significantly higher than that in controls [(33.47±14.25)µg/L, (41.68±16.96)µg/L, vs(20.40±7.22) µg/L, P 0.05). The TM levels in cancer tissue extracts were significantly lower than that in their adjacent non-cancer tissue extracts [(647.71±317.51) µg/L vs (1455.63±772.22)µg/L, P<0.01]. On the contrary, the plasma TM levels in these cancers were significantly higher than that in controls. Conclusion: The rise of plasma TM levels in cancer patients was associated with metastasis and diffusion of cancers. The TM levels can be served as an sensitive index for judging progression and metastasis of cancers.