Relationships of coagulation factor XIII activity with cell-type and stage of non-small cell lung cancer

Factor XIII (FXIII), a thrombin-activated plasma transglutaminase zymogen, is involved in cancer development and progression through a triggered coagulation pathway. The aim of this study was to examine whether FXIII activity levels differed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients according to histological types and TNM stage when compared with healthy subjects.

Twenty-eight NSCLC patients and 28 normal controls who had been individually age-, gender-, body mass index-, smoking status-, and smoking amount-matched were enrolled: 13 adenocarcinomas, 11 squamous cell carcinomas, and four undifferentiated NSCLCs; four stage I, two stage II, 12 stage III, and 10 stage IV NSCLCs. FXIII activity was measured using fluorescence- based protein arrays.

The median FXIII activity level of the NSCLC group [24.2 Loewy U/mL, interquartile range (IQR) 14.9-40.4 Loewy U/mL] was significantly higher than that of the healthy group (17.5 Loewy U/mL, IQR 12.6-26.4 Loewy U/mL) (p=0.01). There were no differences in FXIII activity between adenocarcinoma (median 18.6 Loewy U/mL) and squamous cell carcinoma (median 28.7 Loewy U/mL). NSCLC stage significantly influenced FXIII activity (p=0.02). The FXIII activity of patients with stage III NSCLC (median 27.3 Loewy U/mL, IQR 19.3-40.5 Loewy U/mL) was significantly higher than those of patients with stage I or II (median 14.0 Loewy U/mL, IQR 13.1-23.1 Loewy U/mL, p=0.04). FXIII activity was negatively correlated with aPTT in NSCLC patients (r=-0.38, p=0.04).

Patients with advanced-stage NSCLC exhibited higher coagulation FXIII activity than healthy controls and early-stage NSCLC patients.