Is serum Caveolin 1 a useful biomarker for progression in patients with colorectal cancer

Caveolin-1 (CAV-1) is expressed in colon cancer and appears to contribute to aberrant signaling and protein trafficking. It has been implicated to act as both a tumor suppressor and an oncogene, depending on the tissue of origin and stage of disease. It was found both primary and metastatic carcinomas and may be critical in the regulation of the oxidative status of cancer cells. We investigated whether serum CAV-1 might be used as a factor determining progression of CRC. Total of 61 patients with CRC (26 male, 35 female) and 46 controls (38 male, 8 female) were enrolled. The relationship between CAV-1 and Progression-free survival (PFS) was analyzed with use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results were given as median (%95 CI). Mann-Whitney test was used for the comparison of groups. CAV-1 levels was found to be 11.5 (10.4-12.9) in CRC and 11.9 (10.7-14.4) in controls (p=0.465). In ROC analysis, if CAV-1 levels are equal or lesser than 10.73, it might show presence of progession with a sensitivity 68.75% and specificity 66.67% in patients with CRC (area under the ROC curve (AUC)= 0.656, p=0.042). CAV-1 levels might be used as a marker to determine progression of CRC.