Comparism of Serum Epidermal Growth Factor receptor and Cyclooxygenase-2 levels in patients with Non-small Cell Carcinoma of Lung and Normal Subjects

Relation of inflammation and cancer can be proven in most of the studies. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression is one of the commonest causes of non-small cell carcinoma of lung cancer (NSCLC). Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme and its products; prostaglandin, prostacyclin, thromboxane are involved in inflammation. The aim of the study was to compare the serum epidermal growth factor receptor and cyclooxygenase-2 levels between patients with non-small cell carcinoma of lung and healthy controls. This study included 53 patients diagnosed as NSCLC and 16 apparently healthy controls. In 53 patients, 3 patients were diagnosed as adenocarcinoma and 50 patients were diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of lung. In both subjects, serum EGFR and COX-2 levels were determined by ELISA.
The mean serum EGFR and COX-2 levels of NSCLC patients were significantly higher than those of healthy controls (170.10±13.80 vs. 3.56±0.48 ng/ml) and (13.21±3.17 vs. 0.62±0.15 ng/ml) respectively (p <0.001 in both). Both the mean serum EGFR and COX-2 levels of SCC patients (172.10±14.30 ng/ml and 13.60±3.34 ng/ml) were significantly higher than those of healthy controls (p <0.001 in both).
Both serum EGFR levels and COX-2 levels of patients with adenocarcinoma of lung (137.40±64.70 ng/ml and 6.69±5.52 ng/ml) were not significant different with those of healthy controls (p = 0.174 and p = 0.386) respectively.
The mean serum EGFR and COX-2 levels of SCC patients were higher than those of adenocarcinoma patients but they were not significant (p = 0.653 and p = 0.363) respectively. These findings indicated that EGFR and COX-2 play an important role in carcinogenesis of lung.