Evaluation of Pre-Treatment Serum Levels of IL-7 and GM-CSF in Colorectal Cancer Patients

Survival of Colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is considerably stage-dependent; therefore, early diagnosis is a
pivotal factor in decreasing mortality and morbidity associated with this cancer. GM-CSF and IL-7 are reported
to increase in different cancers and we aimed to investigate the pre-treatment serum levels of GM-CSF and IL-7
in Iranian patients with colorectal cancer. 127 patients (68 males and 59 females) entered this study before
receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A control group of 50 healthy age/sex matched individuals (27 males
and 23 females) were included in the study. The serum levels of GM-CSF and IL-7 were measured using
commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assays. A significantly higher level of GM-CSF was found in the
sera of patients with colorectal cancer compared to healthy age/sex matched controls (P=0.013). However, there
was no significant difference between the levels of IL-7 in sera of patients and controls. We observed a
significant elevation in the level of GM-CSF in poorly differentiated tumors (P=0.024). Also a significant
correlation between lymphatic invasion and the level of GM-CSF in sera of CRC patients was detected (P=0.01).
We found an increase of the level of IL-7 in four patients presenting moderate stages of tumor concomitant with
a decrease of the level of GM-CSF. It can be concluded that the increase of the level of GM-CSF is accompanied
by CRC progression in Iranian patients. Potential therapeutic effect of IL-7 in this disease, however, needs
further investigations.