Clinical significance of elevated serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor in gastric cancer.

This is China's pilot study in the assessment of the diagnostic value of serum soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R) in gastric cancer. We measured its level by ELISA method in 45 patients with gastric cancer (without metastasis: 32; with metastasis: 5; recurrence: 8) 27 gastric ulcer, 27 superficial gastritis and 44 healthy controls. The mean-serum sIL-2R levels were significantly elevated in cancer patients, those with metastasis showed even higher levels than those without metastasis. These results suggested that sIL-2R can be used as a marker of host biological response in gastric cancer patients as well as a tumor marker for the diagnosis of the disease.