Diagnostic and prognostic value of stem cell factor plasma level in glioblastoma multiforme patients

Investigation of novel blood-circulating agents as potential biomarkers for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients' diagnosis and monitoring has gained lots of attention, due to limitations of imaging modalities and invasive tissue biopsy procedures. The present study aims to assess the diagnostic and prognostic values of preoperative stem cell factor (SCF) plasma level in GBM patients.

Preoperative plasma samples from 58 GBM patients and 20 patients with nonglial tumors and 30 healthy controls were obtained. SCF levels were measured by employing the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test and the values were compared between these three groups. Then, the association of SCF plasma level and tumor volume, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) for the GBM patients were evaluated.

Mean preoperative SCF plasma level of the GBM patients (2.80 ± 1.52 ng/ml) was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than the healthy controls (0.80 ± 0.24 ng/ml) and patients with nonglial tumor (1.41 ± 0.76 ng/ml). Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that the preoperative SCF plasma level could distinguish the GBM patients from healthy controls and patients with nonglial tumors with the area under curve values of 0.915 and 0.790, respectively. However, no significant association was observed between the GBM patients' preoperative SCF plasma levels and tumors' volume (Spearman Rho correlation coefficient, 0.1847; 95% CI, p = 0.1652). The GBM patients were divided into two subgroups based on mean preoperative SCF plasma levels (2.80 ng/ml). No significant difference was observed between the patients' PFS (p = 0.3792) and OS (p = 0.1469) at these two subgroups.

Taking together, the SCF plasma level can serve as a novel diagnostic blood-circulating biomarker for patients with GBM. However, its plasma level is not correlated with GBM patients' tumor volume, PFS, or OS.