Chemotherapy and plasma adipokines level in patients with colorectal cancer

Adipokines are molecules produced and secreted by adipose tissue and are linked to multiple malignancies. Adipokines can suppress or promote particular cell behaviors in different types of cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of chemotherapy on select adipokines in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Blood samples were collected from 42 patients with pathologically documented advanced CRC, who required palliative chemotherapy. Leptin, adiponectin, resistin and visfatin levels were measured by ELISA before and 3 months after the administration of chemotherapy. Among the 42 patients evaluated, 18 achieved a partial response (PR), 16 achieved stable disease (SD) and 8 patients experienced disease progression (PD). We found that 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy regimens significantly increased plasma levels of leptin and adiponectin and decreased plasma levels of resistin and visfatin in PR and SD patients, whereas the plasma levels of these molecules were not affected in PD patients. Furthermore, the mean plasma levels of leptin were significantly lower, and the mean plasma levels of resistin and visfatin were significantly greater in patients with PD compared with PR and SD both before and after chemotherapy treatment. We conclude that palliative chemotherapy in CRC patients, in addition to providing clinical benefits, positively affects cytokine production and secretion in PR and SD patients. Specifically, we found that palliative chemotherapy increased plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory adipokine adiponectin and decreased the plasma levels of visfatin and resistin, molecules known to promote angiogenesis and cancer cell proliferation in PR and SD patients. Moreover, the baseline values of leptin, visfatin and resistin might serve as prognostic indicators of a poor response to chemotherapy.