Elevated Serum Level of Angiopoietin-2 as a Potential Marker for Poor Prognosis in Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a fast-growing cancer with poor prognosis. Patients with extensive-stage SCLC are generally treated with chemotherapy. Thus, it is essential to identify a predictor of efficacy and prognosis for SCLC. Angiopoietin-2 promotes vascular remodeling and angiogenesis. Increasing evidence reveals that angiopoietin-2 is preferentially expressed in cancer cells, and elevated angiopoietin-2 expression is related to invasive and metastatic phenotypes in various cancers. However, serum angiopoietin-2 level and its prognostic potential in SCLC have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of angiopoietin-2 level as a predictor of efficacy and prognosis for SCLC. This study consisted of sixty patients with SCLC. Each patient received four cycles of cisplatin-etoposide chemotherapy, and was followed for 36 months. Serum angiopoietin-2 levels were measured by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The angiopoietin-2 levels were significantly higher in SCLC patients than those in healthy subjects (P < 0.001). The patients were divided into high-level group (32 patients, 2,923.9 ± 294.7 pg/ml) and low-level group (28 patients, 1,789.5 ± 355.1 pg/ml) according to the mean value of the angiopoietin-2 level (2,400 pg/ml). Compared with the patients in the high-level group, the patients in the low-level group showed remarkably survival advantage (P = 0.002). During chemotherapy, the patients in the low-level group showed better treatment response than the patients in the high-level group (P < 0.05). Therefore, angiopoietin-2 might be useful as a prognostic factor for SCLC and for predicting SCLC response to chemotherapy.