The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled “Evaluation of Serum Levels of Kisspeptin-1 and Its Receptor, Carcinoembryonic Antigen, Growth Differentiation Factor 15, Integrin B6 and Their potential Role as prognostic Markers in Colorectal Cancer Patients” by the student Sudad Salih Jawad and her supervisors, Lecurer Dr. Zahraa Mohammed Ali at the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department and Dr. Wissam Abdul-Hadi Mohammed from Medical City Directorate.
The study aimed to measure serum concentrations of KISS1, KISS1R, GDF15, integrin β6, and CEA in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with and without metastatic disease, compared to healthy individual, and to investigate the prognostic potential of these biomarkers to enhance CRC management through non-invasive instruments.
A case-control study was conducted from October 2023 to August 2024 at the Oncology Teaching Hospital, Medical City, Baghdad, involving 108 participants: 36 CRC patients without metastasis (Group 1), 36 CRC patients with metastasis (Group 2), and 36 healthy controls (Group 3). CRC diagnosis and staging were confirmed using clinical evaluation, imaging, and histopathological analysis per the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system. The study includes measuring biomarker levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and analyzing their prognostic accuracy and relationships with CRC stages.
The result showed that Serum levels of KISS1, KISS1R, GDF15, ITGB6, and CEA were significantly elevated in CRC patients compared to controls, metastatic CRC patients displayed the highest median levels, followed by non-metastatic patients and controls. Strong positive correlations were observed among biomarkers in the overall CRC cohort, notably between KISS1 and GDF15 (r = 0.907, p < 0.001) and KISS1 and ITGB6 (r = 0.867, p < 0.001). In metastatic patients, KISS1 correlated significantly with GDF15 (r = 0.715, p < 0.001) and ITGB6 (r = 0.745, p < 0.001), while in non-metastatic patients, only KISS1 and GDF15 showed a significant correlation (r = 0.792, p < 0.001).
The study recommended to Conduct multicenter studies with larger, diverse patient populations to validate the prognostic accuracy of KISS1, KISS1R, GDF15, and ITGB6 across different CRC stages and populations. This will enhance statistical analysis and also enhance the generalizability of the findings and confirm their clinical utility.
