Clinical Significance of Serum Thymosin α1 Assay in Tumor Patients

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of thymosin α1(Tα1) measurement in evaluating clinical status of patients with solid malignant tumors. Methods Tα1 levels in serum of 50 normal adults, 20 patients with benign tumors and 63 patients with malignant tumors were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The association of Tα1 level with tumor invasion, metastasis and its alteration after different treatment in patients with malignant tumors were also studied. Results The serum Tα1 level was 0.69±0.35 μg/L in normal adults, 0.96±0.37 μg/L in patients with benign tumors and 1.46±0.90 μg/L in patients with malignant tumors. In comparison it was both increased between patients with benign and malignant tumors and the normal adults( P 0.01 and P 0.001). And its increasing extent in malignant tumors was much greater than that in benign tumors( P 0.05). The serum Tα1 level in patients with malignant tumors was correlated with tumor invasion, metastasis and different treatment intervention. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the serum Tα1 level be increased in tumor patients, and that it may be used as a new tumor marker in clinic.