Bratislava Medical Journal Vol.114, No.7, p.394-397, 2013

Aims and background: In the present study, we investigated the associations between pre- and post-treatment levels of adiponectin, ghrelin, resistin, visfatin and leptin levels in malign and benign groups
Methods and study design: 20 malign colon carcinoma groups and 20 benign groups were included in this study. Serum levels of leptin, adiponectin, resistin, ghrelin, and visfatin were measured by Elisa kits (Milipore Corporation, Billerica, MA, USA).

Results: In the malign group, serum ghrelin (71.90±23.7) levels significantly decreased (p<0.05) when compared to those in the benign (88.00±16.9) group.

However, serum resistin (4.92±2.2, 3.39±1.1) levels increased statistically significantly (p<0.05).

In the malign group, serum visfatin (0.85±0.6, 0.83±0.5), adiponektin (60.31±23.1, 56.39±25.9) and leptin (3.08±1.4, 3.74±1.3) levels were not statistically significantly different from those in the benign group.

In the malign treatment group, serum adiponectin (102.64±50.3, 66.64±27.0) levels were increased significantly (p<0.05); however, serum visfatin (1.17±0.9, 0.68±0.3), ghrelin (85.52±29.5, 82.18±18.0), leptin (5.65±2.8, 3.16±1.1), and resistin (5.96±2.8, 5.65±1.7) levels did not change significantly (p<0.05) compared to those in the respective benign treatment group.

Conclusions: We showed that adipocytokines were involved in the carcinogenic process. The present results suggest that resistin and ghrelin may be important biomarkers of colon cancer. Furthermore, an in vitro study will also be necessary to evaluate the direct function of these adipocytokines in cancer cells. In addition, it will be appropriate to conduct new studies with a large number of patients at different stages (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref. 24).