The Relationship between the Serum Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 Level and the Prognosis of the Disease in Lung Cancer

BACKGROUND : Adhesion molecules are related to cell-to-cell interaction and inflammatory interaction. In addition, adhesive interactions between tumor cells and adjacent cells and/or extracellular matrix play important roles in the complex process of tumor growth and development. Among these adhesion molecules, expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) has been identified in colon cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, pancreatic cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. In the current study, we analyzed serum ICAM-1 concentrations to investigate the relationship between the serum ICAM-1 level and prognosis in patients with lung cancer METHODS : Serum ICAM-1 was measured in 84 patients with lung cancer according to the pathologic type and clinical stage using the ICAM-1 ELISA kit. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyse survival time. RESULTS : There was no difference in serum ICAM-1 concentration among the different stages of lung cancer. Furthermore, there was no difference observed between histologic tumor type with regard to serum ICAM-1 concentration. Although the difference was not significant, the overall survival times of patients with a low serum ICAM-1 concentration (<306 ng/mL) was longer than that of patients with a high concentration (≥306 ng/mL) in non-small cell lung cancer patients. CONCLUSION : These results suggest that high levels of serum ICAM-1 reflect poor prognosis for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.