To investigate the serum levels and clinical significance of the angiogenic factor pleiotrophin (PTN) in patients with lung cancer.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the serum levels of PTN in 57 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 20 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and 12 healthy individuals, and their relationship with pathological stage and operation therapy foe NSCLC was explored.

PTN expression was significantly lower in healthy individuals than that in SCLC (P<0.001) and NSCLC patients (P=0.003). PTN level was significantly higher in SCLC patients than that in NSCLC patients (P=0.010). High expression of PTN was identified as a moderately specific marker for lung carcinoma distinguished from healthy subjects with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) at 0.821(95%CI 0.730~0.913) (P<0.001). Additionally, PTN was identified as a lowly specific marker for NSCLC distinguished from healthy subjects with AUC at 0.794 (95%CI 0.684~0.904) (P=0.001). However, PTN was identified as a highly specific marker for SCLC distinguished from healthy subjects with AUC at 0.900 (95%CI 0.783~1.000) (P<0.001). The PTN level in NSCLC patients was significantly associated with clinical stage (P<0.001) and distant metastasis (P=0.019). No association was found between PTN and other clinic pathological features such as pathological type and lymphatic metastasis in NSCLC patients. Compared with NSCLC patients before opertion, PTN level in NSCLC patients after operation was significantly decreased(P<0.001).

PTN in serum has the important values of diagnosing lung cancer. Moreover, PTN in serum can be available to estimate condition and curative effects of NSCLC.