대한대장항문학회

Purpose: Many kinds of malignant tissues, including colorectal cancer were reported to overexpress transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) gene. However, little work has been done on the circulating TGF-β1 and the association of TGF-β1 with<br>progression in patients with malignant tumors. In this study, we measured the plasma level of TGF-β1 in colorectal cancer patients.<br>Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure plasma TGF-β1 level in 52 colorectal cancer patients and 290 normal controls. And carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as a tumor marker was compared with TGF-β1 in the aspects of<br>sensitivity and specificity.<br>Results: The mean plasma TGF-β1 levels were 1.219 0.834 (0.272∼5.772) ng/mL in normal control and 8.207 2.428 (1.392∼39.241) ng/mL in colorectal cancer. In comparison with CEA, TGF-β1 is more potent in cancer diagnostic sensitivity.<br>Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the plasma TGF-β1 level can be a useful tumor marker in colorectal cancer patients.<br>