Abstract
BackgroundIn patients with cancer, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is elevated and is a predictor of prognosis. We investigated whether serum HGF was a predictive marker for cancer death in a population of community-dwelling Japanese.MethodsWe studied 1492 apparently healthy Japanese adults who underwent health examinations in 1999. Those who reported a history of liver disease or malignancy on a baseline questionnaire were excluded, and plasma HGF was measured in the remaining 1470 participants, who were followed periodically for 10 years. Multivariate proportional hazards regression was used to estimate cancer mortality.ResultsA total of 169 participants died during follow-up (61 from cancer, 32 from cerebrocardiovascular disease, and 76 from other diseases). Mean HGF at baseline was significantly higher among decedents than among survivors (0.26 ± 0.11 vs 0.23 ± 0.09 ng/ml, respectively; P < 0.01). The Cox proportional hazards model showed that age, systolic blood pressure, HGF (hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.06–1.52; P = 0.009), albumin level, smoking status, and creatinine were independent predictors of all-cause death. Age, HGF (hazard ratio, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.04–1.65; P = 0.02), and total cholesterol were independent predictive markers for cancer death.ConclusionsSerum HGF was a predictor of cancer death in an apparently healthy population of community-dwelling Japanese.
Highlights
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was discovered in 1984,1 purified and isolated in 1986,2,3 and first characterized as a strong mitogen for hepatocytes
hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was significantly positively associated with male sex, Body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressures, creatinine, uric acid, C-reactive protein (CRP), triglycerides, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), γ-GTP, smoking, and use of antihypertensive medication and significantly inversely associated with total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (Table 1)
Factors positively associated with death were age, male sex, systolic blood pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, uric acid, CRP, γ-GTP, smoking, use of antihypertensive medication, and HGF, whereas BMI, albumin, and total cholesterol were inversely associated with death
Summary
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was discovered in 1984,1 purified and isolated in 1986,2,3 and first characterized as a strong mitogen for hepatocytes. We investigated whether serum HGF was a predictive marker for cancer death in a population of communitydwelling Japanese. Methods: We studied 1492 apparently healthy Japanese adults who underwent health examinations in 1999 Those who reported a history of liver disease or malignancy on a baseline questionnaire were excluded, and plasma HGF was measured in the remaining 1470 participants, who were followed periodically for 10 years. HGF (hazard ratio, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.04–1.65; P = 0.02), and total cholesterol were independent predictive markers for cancer death.
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