Role of the hematopoietic cytokines SCF, IL-3, GM-CSF and M-CSF in the diagnosis of pancreatic and ampullary cancer

Background Previous studies have demonstrated altered levels of hematopoietic cytokines in the serum of patients with different types of cancer. Methods We measured the serum levels of the hematopoietic cytokines stem cell factor (SCF), interleukin 3 (IL-3), macrophage-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) and granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in 40 pancreatic and ampullary cancer patients and 40 healthy volunteers, using ELISA. We also assessed the most widely used pancreatic tumor markers, carbohydrate antigen 19–9 (CA 19–9) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), in both groups. We then correlated the concentrations of the cytokines and the tumor markers in the patients’ serum and we estimated their diagnostic ability by calculating diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive values and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results The SCF and IL-3 levels were significantly lower and the M-CSF levels significantly higher in pancreatic cancer patients than in controls. There were significant positive correlations between the serum levels of CEA and M-CSF, GM-CSF and SCF, and between GM-CSF and IL-3. The area under the ROC curve and diagnostic sensitivity of M-CSF were greater than those of SCF and IL-3. The diagnostic sensitivity of the combined use of SCF and M-CSF reached 97.5%. Conclusion The diagnostic ability of M-CSF and SCF in pancreatic and ampullary cancer should stimulate further studies evaluating their clinical usefulness as tumor markers.