[Expression of TREM-1 in patients with invasive cervical cancer and precursor lesions]

It has been shown that the TREM-1 glycoprotein belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily that induces secretion of various proinflammatory cytokines. The aim of this study was to measure the expression of TREM-1 in patients with cervical cancer.

In this cross-sectional study we included four groups of patients: GI: women with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (IL) (n = 15 p / g); GII: patients with high-grade squamous IL (n = 9 w / g); GIII: patients with invasive cervical cancer (n = 9 p / g) and GIV: healthy patients (n = 15 p / g). In all patients the expression of TREM-1 and the Average Fluorescence Index (AFI) in neutrophils and monocytes were measured, as well as levels of leukocytes, neutrophils and monocytes. We used Student's t test for independent samples. For these variables, we applied Mann-Whitney rank-sum, ANOVA, and Tukey tests. Chi square test was used for qualitative variables.

The percentages of TREM-1 expression in neutrophils and monocytes, plus the AFI in neutrophils in the 4 groups was not significantly different. The AFI of TREM-1 in monocytes was significantly different when comparing group II and group III versus group IV (p < 0.02). There was also no significant difference when comparing the mean values of leukocytes, neutrophils and monocytes in the different groups.

This study shows increased expression of TREM-1 in monocytes from patients with advanced cancer.