Serum Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Is Significantly Lower in Patients with Lung Cancer and Continued to Decrease After Platinum-Based Chemotherapy

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the diagnosis and prediction of serum platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) level in patients with lung cancer (LC). METHODS: Serum concentrations of PDGF-AA and PDGF-AB/BB were determined via Luminex assay in 210 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 33 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), and 168 healthy controls. RESULTS: The serum levels of PDGF-AA and PDGF-AB/BB were lower in patients with NSCLC (P < 0.05) and SCLC (P < 0.05), compared to healthy controls. The concentration of PDGF-AA or PDGF-AB/BB continued to markedly decrease in NSCLC after therapy with platinum-based chemotherapy (P < 0.05). The median survival times were 29 and 38 months in patients with NSCLC who received PDGF-AA < 30 ng/mL and PDGF-AA ≥ 30 ng/mL (P = 0.0078), and 26 and 38 months in patients with NSCLC who received PDGF-AB/BB < 42 ng/mL and PDGF-AB/BB ≥ 42 ng/mL (P = 0.0001), respectively. At the individual protein level, PDGF-AA and PDGF-AB/BB had better diagnostic values for NSCLC (AUC = 0.905, AUC = 0.922, respectively). CONCLUSION: Serum PDGF may be a potential biomarker for diagnosis of patients with NSCLC and SCLC. However, the prognostic value of serum PDGF in patients with NSCLC harboring mutations and different therapies requires additional investigation.