Original Article


Plasma thioredoxin reductase activity, a diagnostic biomarker, is up-regulated in resectable non-small cell lung cancers

Ming Zhou, Weiwei Ma, Yongchang Zhang, Wenxiang Wang, Gaoming Xiao, Suofu Ye, Xue Chen, Huihui Zeng, Nong Yang

Abstract

Background: TR activity has been found to be elevated in people at high risk of developing prostatic cancer and is over-expressed in solid tumors. We hypothesized that plasma TR activity was highly correlated with carcinogenesis in NSCLC and might thus be a biomarker for its early diagnosis.
Methods: The plasma TR activity of cancer patients and non-cancer volunteers was measured using the DTNB method and analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method. TR expression of excised carcinoma tissue was performed using immunohistochemical staining. The study was registered on clinicaltrial.gov NCT01985113.
Results: Our results showed that plasma TR was significantly up-regulated in cancer patients compared with healthy volunteers. The cut-off value was 7.1 U/mL, and this cut-off value was further verified in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The expression of TR was higher in carcinoma tissues compared to para-carcinoma tissues.
Conclusions: Plasma TR was a diagnostic biomarker for NSCLC.

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