Multiplexed cytokine profiling of serum for detection of colorectal cancer

Aim: To evaluate the concentrations of eight cytokines in order to identify potential biomarkers for assisting in the detection of colorectal cancer. Materials & methods: The concentrations of IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, MMP-2, MMP-7 and MMP-9 were detected in the sera of 69 healthy controls, 93 colorectal adenoma patients and 149 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Results: Multivariate logistic regression analyses, which included CEA, CA199, IL-8, TNF-α and MMP-7, were used to evaluate the diagnostic value for differentiating between colorectal adenoma and CRC. The area under the curve was 0.945 (95% CI: 0.909–0.981). The sensitivity and specificity were 85.86 and 96.78%, respectively. Compared with the conventional biomarkers CEA and CA199, multivariate logistic regression showed significant improvement. Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that testing using a panel of three serum cytokines, CEA and CA199 may have strong potential to assist in the detection of CRC.