Vol 49, No 4 (2011)
Original paper
Published online: 2012-01-16
The levels of sMUC-1 in patients with multiple myeloma
DOI: 10.5603/FHC.2011.0089
Folia Histochem Cytobiol 2011;49(4):654-658.
Abstract
Mucins have been shown to be aberrantly overexpressed in various diseases including cystic fibrosis,
asthma, and cancer. Recent studies have uncovered the roles of these mucins in the pathogenesis of cancer. The
presence of MUC-1 has also been detected on the cell surface of multiple myeloma (MM) cells in peripheral
blood and showed direct correlation with tumor mass. In this study, we evaluated the levels of soluble MUC-1
(sMUC-1) in 50 new MM patients and correlated this with the levels of sMUC-1 after treatment. High levels of
sMUC-1 were found in 20/50 (40%) MM patients, and in 2/50 (4%) healthy individuals (p = 0.001). According
to the ISS, we found significant differences of mean sMUC-1 levels between the first stage of the disease (0.63 ±
± 0.26) and the third (0.93 ± 0.24; p = 0.03), but not with the second stage (0.80 ± 0.22; p = 0.08). Our study
confirmed the correlation between elevated sMUC-1 and high elevated lactate dehydrogenase (p = 0.03) and
the level of IgG in groups of patients with MM IgG at every stage of disease (p = 0.001). We showed for the first
time that levels of sMUC-1 after treatment, in a group of patients with initially elevated levels of MUC-1, were
statistically lower than in a group of patients with initially lower levels of sMUC-1 (21% vs. 42,6%; p = 0.05). At
37 months median of follow-up, we found a statistically significant difference between patients with normal
versus elevated sMUC-1 in terms of progression-free survival (median 12 months vs. 8.1 months; p = 0.03).
(Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 654–658)
Keywords: multiple myelomasMUC-1
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