Importance of serum levels of angiopoietin-2 and survivin biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND Angiogenesis is an essential process in cancer growth maintenance, and metastasis. Angiopoietin-2 promotes tumor angiogenesis by priming the vasculature and potentiating the effects of cytokines at the front of active neovascularization. Enhanced expression of angiopoietin-2 has been reported in lung cancer tissue. Survivin is one of the inhibitors of apoptosis protein that has been shown to play a key role in cancer progression, and in tumor angiogenesis. Also plays a key role in tumor cell resistance to anticancer agents and ionizing radiation. AIM To measure the serum levels of angiopoietin-2 and survivin as possible angiogenic factors in lung cancer patients with the assessment of their interrelationships and clinical significance. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with lung cancer as NSCLC (n=70) and healthy volunteers (n=10) were enrolled. Serum angiopoietin-2 and survivin concentrations were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELIZA). RESULTS Median serum angiopoietin-2 levels with lung cancer (2730pg/mL) ranged from 1171 to 6541pg/mL was higher than the median of the control group (1795pg/mL) ranged from 1076 to 2730/mL, p<0.001. Median serum survivin levels were also higher in patients with lung cancer (53.0pg/mL) ranged from 39.3 to 96.3pg/mL than the median of the control group (48.8pg/mL) ranged from 38.0 to 74.6pg/mL, but did not reach statistical significance p=0.206. In all patients with lung cancer, serum angiopoietin-2 was not significantly correlated with survivin (r=0.073, p=0.657). Neither serum angiopoietin-2 nor survivin showed significant relation with the serum angiopoietin-2 or survivin levels depending on the cell types, stage progression, and metastasis among the patients with NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that serum angiopoietin-2 is a useful marker for the diagnosis of NSCLC by ELIZA technique.