BackgroundLung cancer is the most incident and lethal form of cancer, with late diagnosis as a major determinant of its bad prognosis. Immunotherapies targeting immune checkpoints improve survival, but positive results encompass only 30%–40% of the patients, possibly due to alternative pathways to immunosuppression, including tumour-associated macrophages (TAM). Colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) is implicated in TAM differentiation and recruitment to tumours and in tumour angiogenesis, through a special setting of Tie-2-expressing macrophages, which respond to angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2). We evaluated the role of serum levels of CSF-1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prognosis and whether these could serve as biomarkers for NSCLC detection, along with Ang-2.Participants and methodsWe prospectively studied an unselected cohort of 145 patients with NSCLC and a group of 30 control individuals. Serum levels of Ang-2 and CSF-1 were measured by ELISA prior to treatment.ResultsSerum levels of CSF-1 and Ang-2 are positively correlated (p<0.000001). Individuals with high serum levels of CSF-1 have a 17-fold risk for NSCLC presence and patients with combined High Ang-2/CSF-1 serum levels present a 5-fold increased risk of having NSCLC. High Ang-2/CSF-1 phenotype is also associated with worst prognosis in NSCLC.ConclusionsCombined expression of CSF-1 and Ang-2 seems to contribute to worst prognosis in NSCLC and it is worthy to understand the basis of this unexplored partnership. Moreover, we think CSF-1 could be included as a biomarker in NSCLC screening protocols that can improve the positive predictive value of the current screening modalities, increase overall cost effectiveness and potentially improve lung cancer survival.
Association of phosphatase and tension homologue deleted on chromosome ten polymorphism rs1903858, but not serum levels with the risk of non–small‐cell lung cancer: A case‐control study
