Clinical significance of serum soluble endoglin in patients with esophageal carcinoma

Objective To analyze the changes of serum soluble endoglin in patients with esophageal carcinoma and its clinical value.Methods Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect serum soluble endoglin level in 59 cases of esophageal carcinoma and 33 cases of normal controls.The serum soluble endoglin level was compared in 41 patients with esophageal carcinoma pre-and post-operation.Results The serum soluble endoglin level was elevated in all subgroups of patients with esophageal carcinoma [(5.11 ±0.79) μg/L] compared to the controls [(3.53 ±0.15) μg/L] (P ＜0.01).Serum soluble endoglin was correlated with clinical stage and histological grade,but not with sex and age.The serum soluble endoglin level in stage Ⅳ [(6.23 ± 0.15) μg/L] was higher than that in stage Ⅲ [(5.52 ± 0.17) μg/L,P ＜ 0.01],that in stage Ⅲ higher than that in stage Ⅱ [(4.72 ± 0.15) μg/L,P ＜ 0.01],that in stage Ⅱ higher than that in stage Ⅰ [(4.11 ± 0.16) μg/L] (P ＜ 0.01),and that in stage Ⅰ higher than that in normal controls (P ＜ 0.01).Serum soluble endoglin level was higher in the poorly differentiated [(5.65 ±0.65) μg/L] than that in moderately differentiated [(5.10 ±0.80) μg/L] and well differentiated [(4.65 ± 0.58) μg/L,P ＜ 0.05].The serum soluble endoglin levels were remarkably reduced in patients with esophageal carcinoma after operation (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Detection of serum soluble endoglin may be a reference mark to observe patients' condition,monitor curative effect and judge prognosis of esophageal carcinoma. Key words: Esophageal carcinoma;  Soluble endoglin;  Surgery