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Pro-gastrin-releasing peptide as a marker for the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors

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Abstract

Background

Pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP) is an established tumor marker of small cell lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine if ProGRP could serve as a tumor marker for the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFTs).

Methods

Sixteen patients with ESFTs (mean age 32 years) were included in this study. As a control group, 42 patients with other tumor types that clinically or pathologically mimic ESFTs were also analyzed. Pre-treatment serum ProGRP and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels, the relationships between these levels, and tumor volume were investigated. In addition, serial changes in the serum or plasma ProGRP (6 patients) and NSE levels (5 patients) were measured over the course of treatment.

Results

Pre-treatment serum ProGRP levels were higher than the normal range in 8 of 16 patients; for these eight patients, ProGRP levels positively correlated with tumor volume (R = 0.99). In the control group, ProGRP levels were within the normal range, except for the two patients. Changes in ProGRP levels during treatment were consistent with tumor volume. Serum NSE levels were elevated in 14 of 16 patients with ESFTs and 8 of 42 patients with other tumor types. The range of NSE elevation was much smaller compared to that of ProGRP. Our data indicate that ProGRP is superior to NSE in terms of specificity.

Conclusions

Serum ProGRP levels were elevated in half of the patients with ESFTs and reflected therapeutic response. ProGRP is a reliable tumor marker for the diagnosis of ESFTs and evaluation of treatment response.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the staffs of the Biobank of the Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital for sample preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Orthopedic Oncology, Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital, 1007 Shimonagakubo, Nagaizumi-cho, Shuntou-gun, Shizuoka, 411-8777, Japan

    Yosuke Honda, Hirohisa Katagiri, Mitsuru Takahashi, Hideki Murata, Junji Wasa & Seiichi Hosaka

  2. Division of Pediatrics, Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital, Shizuoka, Japan

    Yuji Ishida

  3. Division of Pathology, Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital, Shizuoka, Japan

    Ichiro Ito & Koji Muramatsu

  4. Medical Genetics Division, Shizuoka Cancer Center Research Institute, Shizuoka, Japan

    Tohru Mochizuki

  5. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan

    Yukihiro Matsuyama

  6. Shizuoka Cancer Center Research Institute, Shizuoka, Japan

    Ken Yamaguchi

Authors
  1. Yosuke Honda
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  2. Hirohisa Katagiri
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  3. Mitsuru Takahashi
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  4. Hideki Murata
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  5. Junji Wasa
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  6. Seiichi Hosaka
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  7. Yuji Ishida
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  8. Ichiro Ito
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  9. Koji Muramatsu
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  10. Tohru Mochizuki
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  11. Yukihiro Matsuyama
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  12. Ken Yamaguchi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hirohisa Katagiri.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Ken Yamaguchi is the inventor of the ProGRP assay system, and he holds patents on this method. He receives honoraria for patent royalties from the Advanced Life Science Institute, Inc. (Saitama, Japan), a company distributing reagents to several in vitro diagnostics companies, for constructing the assay system. None of other authors have any conflict of interest to declare.

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Honda, Y., Katagiri, H., Takahashi, M. et al. Pro-gastrin-releasing peptide as a marker for the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors. Int J Clin Oncol 24, 1468–1478 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-019-01492-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-019-01492-0

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