Skip to main content
Log in

The assay and clinical significance of serum thymidine kinase 1 in patients with colorectal carcinoma

  • Original Article
  • Published:
European Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Background

Thymidine kinase 1 was regarded as a good serological marker for cell proliferation. In recent years, the role of thymidine kinase 1 in occurrence, development, and prognosis of tumors gradually attracted people’s attention and had been regarded as a sensitive indicator of tumor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical value of detection of serum thymidine kinase 1 in colorectal carcinoma.

Methods

In this study, the level of serum thymidine kinase 1 in 150 patients with colorectal carcinoma, 36 patients with benign colorectal diseases, and 40 normal controls was determined by a chemiluminescence dot blot assay.

Results

The level of serum thymidine kinase 1 in patients with colorectal carcinoma was much higher than that in patients with benign colorectal diseases and normal controls (P < 0.01), but there was no significant difference between the level of serum thymidine kinase 1 in patients with benign colorectal diseases and that in normal controls (P > 0.05). The level of serum thymidine kinase 1 declined significantly 1 month after operation. The positive rate of serum thymidine kinase 1 in patients with colorectal carcinoma was much higher than other digestive tumor markers [carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA-199, CA-724)].

Conclusions

The detection of serum thymidine kinase 1 might have high clinical value in auxiliary diagnosis, curative effect monitoring, and prognosis judgment of colorectal carcinoma.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Li Z, Wang Y, He J, et al. Serological thymidine kinase 1 is a prognostic factor in oesophageal, cardial and lung carcinomas. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2010;19(4):313–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Zhang F, Li H, Pendleton AR, et al. Thymidine kinase 1 immunoassay: a potential marker for breast cancer. Cancer Detect Prev. 2001;25(1):8–15.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Aufderklamm S, Todenhöfer T, Gakis G, et al. Thymidine kinase and cancer monitoring. Cancer Lett. 2012;316(1):6–10.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Guan H, Sun Y, Zan Q, et al. Thymidine kinase 1 expression in atypical ductal hyperplasia significantly differs from usual ductal hyperplasia and ductal carcinoma in situ: a useful tool in tumor therapy management. Mol Med Rep. 2009;2(6):923–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Xu XH, Zhang YM, Shu XH, et al. Serum thymidine kinase 1 reflects the progression of pre-malignant and malignant tumors during therapy. Mol Med Rep. 2008;1(5):705–11.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Wu BJ, Li WP, Qian C, Ding W, Zhou ZW, Jiang H. Increased serum level of thymidine kinase 1 correlates with metastatic site in patients with malignant melanoma. Tumour Biol. 2013;34(2):643–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Bolayirli M, Papila C, Korkmaz GG, et al. Serum thymidine kinase 1 activity in solid tumor (breast and colorectal cancer) patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. J Clin Lab Anal. 2013;27(3):220–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Luo P, He E, Eriksson S, et al. Thymidine kinase activity in serum of renal cell carcinoma patients is a useful prognostic marker. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2009;18(3):220–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhou J, He E, Skog S. The proliferation marker thymidine kinase 1 in clinical use. Mol Clin Oncol. 2013;1(1):18–28.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. He Q, Mao Y, Wu J, et al. Cytosolic thymidine kinase is a specific histopathologic tumour marker for breast carcinomas. Int J Oncol. 2004;25(4):945–53.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Lee SJ, Lee HJ, Moon DH. Quantitative analysis of thymidine kinase 1 and 5′(3′)-deoxyribonucleotidase mRNA expression: the role of fluorothymidine uptake. Anticancer Res. 2011;31(6):2135–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Xiang Y, Zeng H, Liu X, et al. Thymidine kinase 1 as a diagnostic tumor marker is of moderate value in cancer patients: a meta‑analysis. Biomed Rep. 2013;1(4):629–37.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Chen G, He C, Li L, et al. Nuclear TK1 expression is an independent prognostic factor for survival in pre-malignant and malignant lesions of the cervix. BMC Cancer. 2013;13:249.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Chen F, Tang L, Xia T, et al. Serum thymidine kinase 1 levels predict cancer‑free survival following neoadjuvant, surgical and adjuvant treatment of patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Mol Clin Oncol. 2013;1(5):894–902.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Karbownik M, Brzezianska E, Lewinski A. Increased expression of mRNA specific for thymidine kinase, deoxycytidine kinase or thymidine phosphorylase in human papillary thyroid carcinoma. Cancer Lett. 2005;225(2):267–73.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Faria M, Halquist MS, Kindt E, Li W, Karnes HT, O’Brien PJ. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for quantification of thymidine kinase activity in human serum by monitoring the conversion of 3-deoxy-3-fluorothymidine to 3-deoxy-3-fluorothymidine monophosphate. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2012;907:13–20.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Bjöhle J, Bergqvist J, Gronowitz JS, et al. Serum thymidine kinase activity compared with CA 15-3 in locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer within a randomized trial. Breast Cancer ResTreat. 2013;139(3):751–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Hannigan BM, Barnett YA, Armstrong DB, McKelvey-Martin VJ, McKenna PG. Thymidine kinases: the enzymes and their clinical usefulness. Cancer Biother. 1993;8(3):189–97.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Xu Y, Shi QL, Ma H, et al. High thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) expression is a predictor of poor survival in patients with pT1 of lung adenocarcinoma. Tumour Biol. 2012;33(2):475–83.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Nisman B, Yutkin V, Nechushtan H, et al. Circulating tumor M2 pyruvate kinase and thymidine kinase 1 are potential predictors for disease recurrence in renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy. Urology. 2010;76(2):513.e1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Korkmaz T, Seber S, Okutur K, et al. Serum thymidine kinase 1 levels correlates with FDG uptake and prognosis in patients with non small cell lung cancer. Biomarkers. 2013;18(1):88–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. He Q, Skog S, Wang N, Eriksson S, Tribukait B. Characterization of a peptide antibody against a C-terminal part of human and mouse cytosolic thymidine kinase, which is a marker for cell proliferation. Eur J Cell Biol. 1996;70(2):117–24.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Huang S, Lin J, Guo N, et al. Elevated serum thymidine kinase 1 predicts risk of pre/early cancerous progression. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2011;12(2):497–505.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Alegre MM, Weyant MJ, Bennett DT, et al. Serum detection of thymidine kinase 1 as a means of early detection of lung cancer. Anticancer Res. 2014;34(5):2145–51.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Procházka V, Faber E, Raida L, Langová K, Indrák K, Papajík T. High baseline serum thymidine kinase 1 level predicts unfavorable outcome in patients with follicular lymphoma. Leuk Lymphoma. 2012;53(7):1306–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Chen ZH, Huang SQ, Wang Y, et al. Serological thymidine kinase 1 is a biomarker for early detection of tumours—a health screening study on 35,365 people, using a sensitive chemiluminescent dot blot assay. Sensors (Basel). 2011;11(12):11064–80.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Nisman B, Allweis T, Kaduri L, et al. Serum thymidine kinase 1 activity in breast cancer. Cancer Biomark. 2010;7(2):65–72.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Pan ZL, Ji XY, Shi YM, Zhou J, He E, Skog S. Serum thymidine kinase 1 concentration as a prognostic factor of chemotherapy-treated non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2010;136(8):1193–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Alegre MM, Robison RA, O’Neill KL. Thymidine kinase 1 upregulation is an early event in breast tumor formation. J Oncol. 2012;2012:575647.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Huang ZH, Tian XS, Li R, et al. Elevated thymidine kinase 1 in serum following neoadjuvant chemotherapy predicts poor outcome for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Exp Ther Med. 2012;3(2):331–5.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Li HX, Lei DS, Wang XQ, Skog S, He Q. Serum thymidine kinase 1 is a prognostic and monitoring factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Oncol Rep. 2005;13(1):145–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Zhang J, Jia Q, Zou S, et al. Thymidine kinase 1: a proliferation marker for determining prognosis and monitoring the surgical out-come of primary bladder carcinoma patients. Oncol Rep. 2006;15(2):455–61.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Key Scientific and Technological Project of Henan Province in China (No. 132102310061).

Ethical standards statement

In this study, all procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Ethic Committee of Henan Cancer Hospital on human experimentation. The experimental protocol and informed consent procedure were in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008 (5).

Statement of informed consent

In this study, informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. All persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study have been omitted.

Conflict of interest

Yongchao Zhang, Jiaxiang Wang, Jianguo Xie, Donghua Yang, Guangsen Han, Qiang Fu, and Yonglei Zhang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Wang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Y., Wang, J., Xie, J. et al. The assay and clinical significance of serum thymidine kinase 1 in patients with colorectal carcinoma. Eur Surg 47, 248–253 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10353-015-0342-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10353-015-0342-8

Keywords

Navigation