Procalcitonin beyond the acute phase: novel biomediator properties?

Carolina Panico,Eric Nylen

doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-189

Abstract

Since inflammation has been linked to carcinogenic events, discovery of relevant biomarkers may have important preventative implications. Procalcitonin (ProCT) has been shown to be an important prognostic biomarker in severe inflammatory conditions, but there is no data regarding its biomarker role, if any, beyond the acute phase. In a recent study published in BMC Medicine, Cotoi et al. analyzed whether serum ProCT levels in healthy individuals are associated with mortality outcomes. The results are affirmative in that baseline ProCT was shown to be strongly and independently associated with all-cause and cancer mortality and with the incidence of colon cancer in men. By contrast, the study indicated that high sensitivity C-reactive protein was independently associated with cardiovascular mortality but not with cancer mortality in men. Thus, baseline levels of ProCT appear to have prognostic biomarker implications potentially related to its emerging biomediator action(s).

Highlights

Since inflammation has been linked to carcinogenic events, discovery of relevant biomarkers may have important preventative implications
There has been ample documentation that serum ProCT increases multifold in various septic-like conditions, where it correlates with severity and mortality [1,4,5], there has been little attention drawn to the possible influence of baseline ProCT and its associated peptides that circulate at low concentrations in healthy individuals [6]
The Malmo Diet and Cancer Cohort A recent study published in BMC Medicine by Cotoi et al observed the effects of ProCT on all-cause and cancer mortality in healthy individuals [7]

Summary

Introduction

Since inflammation has been linked to carcinogenic events, discovery of relevant biomarkers may have important preventative implications. There has been ample documentation that serum ProCT increases multifold in various septic-like conditions, where it correlates with severity and mortality [1,4,5], there has been little attention drawn to the possible influence of baseline ProCT and its associated peptides that circulate at low concentrations in healthy individuals [6]. The Malmo Diet and Cancer Cohort A recent study published in BMC Medicine by Cotoi et al observed the effects of ProCT on all-cause and cancer mortality in healthy individuals [7].

Results

Conclusion