Serum Levels of Kisspeptin Are Elevated in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer.

Sven H Loosen,Georg Lurje,Frank Tacke,Martina Spehlmann,Christoph Roderburg,Tom Florian Ulmer,Tom Luedde,Pia Paffenholz,Christian Trautwein,Mihael Vucur,Ulf P Neumann,Mark Luedde

doi:10.1155/2019/5603474

Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) still represents a devastating disease associated with a very limited survival. Novel biomarkers allowing an early diagnosis as well as an optimal selection of suitable treatment options for individual patients are urgently needed to improve the dismal outcome of PDAC patients. Recently, alterations of Kisspeptin serum levels, a member of the adipokine family, were described in various types of cancers. However, the role of circulating Kisspeptin as a biomarker in PDAC patients is poorly defined. In this study, we measured Kisspeptin serum levels in a cohort of 128 prospectively enrolled PDAC patients undergoing surgical resection as well as 36 healthy controls. Kisspeptin concentrations were elevated in PDAC patients compared to control samples. Nevertheless, Kisspeptin serum levels were independent of tumor-related factors such as the tumor grading, TNM stage, or clinical features such as the ECOG performance status. Finally, in our analysis, neither preoperative nor postoperative Kisspeptin levels turned out as a significant predictor of overall survival after tumor resection. In conclusion, our data suggest that Kisspeptin concentrations are altered in PDAC patients but do not allow to predict patients' outcome after resection of PDAC.

Highlights

Despite recent advances in the surgical and systemic treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC), this malignancy still represents a devastating disease [1, 2]
Results from previous publications suggest that Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients with high tumoral Kisspeptin expression display a more favorable outcome compared to patients with low Kisspeptin tissue levels [16]
We demonstrate in a large cohort of PDAC patients who underwent tumor resection in a curative attempt that circulating levels of Kisspeptin are elevated in PDAC patients both at the time point of diagnosis and after tumor resection

Summary

Introduction

Despite recent advances in the surgical and systemic treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC), this malignancy still represents a devastating disease [1, 2]. While the overall 5-year survival rate for all patients is still below 20%, radical tumor resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy can result in a long term for selected patients with early disease stages [3, 4]. Only 8 to 16% of all PDAC patients represent potential candidates for a curatively intended tumor resection [3, 4], as most patients initially present with an advanced, nonresectable tumor stage at the time of diagnosis [3, 5]. Many resected PDAC patients are facing an early tumor recurrence, leaving these patients without any benefit from the extensive tumor resection [6]. Together, improving the rate of patients who Disease Markers are diagnosed with a resectable disease stage and identifying patients who will benefit from extensive tumor resection might help to improve the patients’ prognosis. Besides standard diagnostic approaches such as imaging techniques, accessible biomarkers might yield important information on individual patient’s disease characteristics and will be of increasing importance for both of these issues [7, 8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion