Relationship between serum ELAM-1 and metastasis among patients with colon cancer

PURPOSE: We studied serum ELAM-1 levels in colon cancer patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Serum ELAM-1 levels were significantly higher in 52 patients with colon cancer (mean +/- standard deviation, 69.3 +/- 28.6 U/ml) compared with 32 healthy volunteers (36.5 +/- 11.9 U/ml; P < 0.001). The mean serum ELAM-1 level in patients with metastatic tumors was significantly greater than that of patients with nonmetastatic tumors. Sensitivity and specificity of serum ELAM-1 elevation in detecting metastasis was 75 and 87.5 percent, respectively. Those of carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 elevations were 71.4 and 62.5 percent and 35.7 and 91.7 percent, respectively. Twenty-five (89.3 percent) of 28 metastatic tumors showed either serum ELAM-1 or carcinoembryonic antigen elevation. There were weak but significant correlations found between serum ELAM-1 and carcinoembryonic antigen or carbohydrate antigen 19-9 levels. Moreover, serum ELAM-1 increased before detecting the recurrence by imaging in five of seven recurrent colon cancer patients. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that serum ELAM-1 could be a useful tumor marker for colon cancer, especially in synchronous and metaclonous metastasis.