Significance of detecting serum thymidine kinase 1 in diagnosis and efficacy evaluation for malignant tumors

Objective To evaluate the significance of detecting serum thymidine kinase 1(STK1) in the diagnosis and efficacy evaluation for malignant tumors. Methods The samples were collected from 103 cases with different kinds of malignant tumors in the different periods of radiotherapy.Serum STK1 was measured by sensitive chemiluminescence dot-blot assay.The results were compared to those in healthy controls(group C). Results Serum STK1 in patients with malignant tumors before radiotherapy was (2.21±0.85) pmol/L,which was higher than(1.59±0.48) pmol/L after radiotherapy and(1.36±0.86) pmol/L) in group C(P0.05).The positive rate of STK1 in patients with malignant tumors before radiotherapy was 56.41%,which was higher than 16.90% after radiotherapy and 10.20% in group C(P0.05).Serum STK1 before radiotherapy in the patients with cephalocervical malignant tumors was(1.99±0.64) pmol/L,which was lower than (2.51±1.10) pmol/L in the patients with abdominal malignant tumors(P0.05).Serum STK1 before radiotherapy in the patients with partial remissive malignant tumors was (1.67±0.47) pmol/L, which was higher than(1.54±0.47) pmol/L in complete remissive patients(P0.05).After radiotherapy,serum STK1 in the patients with severe skin and mucosa reaction was(1.76±0.37) pmol/L,which was higher than(1.50±0.52) pmol/L in the patients with mild skin and mucosa reaction(P0.05). Conclusion Serum STK1 is a reliable marker for screening and evaluating therapeutic efficacy and prognosis in the patients with malignant tumors.