Usage of granulocyte colony stumulating factor (G-CSF) and macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) as potential tumor markers in non small cell lung cancer diagnosis

Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is an important subject threatening public health. There is not a marker for early detection of this cancer type in practice yet. Markers in use may sometimes be insufficient for guiding treatment. When studies on this subject searched cytokines show promise in diagnosis and guiding treatment.The reason for selecting to choose serum M-CSF and G-CSF levels are observing tumor related leukocytosis in most of the NSCLC patients. In our study we compared serum M-CSF and G-CSF levels in 24 newly diagnosed NSCLC with ELISA and then compared with 30 healthy individuals.Our data suggests that serum G-CSF levels are significantly higher than controls but no significant difference between M-CSF levels. In addition, increased serum G-CSF level with high neutrophil counts in patients suggests tumor related increase of this cytokine. There was no relationship between serum cytokines and tumor types.Our main obstacle was small number of patients. Patient follow up is still ongoing so no survival analysis could be performed.There are different results in the literature about cytokine levels in NSCLC patients but the main idea, which we collaborate too, is ongoing studies will show consistent results and will be valuable for patients.