The levels of sMUC-1 in patients with multiple myeloma

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).