[Clinical significance of elevated serum sICAM-1 in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of serum sICAM-1(soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1) and tissue ICAM-1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its clinical significance. METHODS: Expression of ICAM-1 in frozen sections of 20 normal nasopharyngeal mucosa and 54 nasopharyngeal carcinoma samples were studied with immunohistochemical technique, and levels of serum sICAM-1 in 54 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC group) and 32 healthy adults (normal group) by ELISA. RESULTS: Positive expression (45/54) of tissue ICAM-1 and levels (2,044.48 +/- 640.05) microgram/L of serum sICAM-1 in NPC group were significantly higher than that of 2/20 and (313.70 +/- 114.98) microgram/L in normal group (P < 0.01, respectively), and there was a positive relationship between the expression of tissue ICAM-1 and levels of serum sICAM-1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(P < 0.05). The levels (2,177.31 +/- 642.13) microgram/L of serum sICAM-1 in patients with III-IV stages were higher than those (1,847.25 +/- 308.15) microgram/L in I-II stages (P < 0.05), and those (1,678.89 +/- 685.01) microgram/L in patients with no lymph node metastasis lower than that (2,134.34 +/- 609.60) microgram/L in lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The levels of serum sICAM-1 decreased significantly from (2,211.42 +/- 717.59) microgram/L to (926.55 +/- 207.72) microgram/L in disappearance of tumor and metastatic lymph node after radiotherapy (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: sICAM-1 might be involved in the cellular immunopathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the measurement of the serum sICAM-1 may reflect ability of neoplasm cell in freedom from host immunological surveillance. Dynamic measurement of serum sICAM-1 may be a useful objective index to evaluate NPC prognosis and curative effects.