Preoperative Serum Krebs Von Den Lungen-6 and Surfactant Protein-D Levels in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Interstitial Pneumonia

Abstract

We retrospectively analyzed the prognostic significance of preoperative serum Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) surfactant protein-D (SP-D) levels in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP). We enrolled 41 NSCLC patients with IP who have undergone curative surgery. Prognostic significance of serum KL-6 and SP-D levels was examined. We found a significant relationship between serum KL-6 and SP-D levels in NSCLC patients with IP. However, the 5-year survival of patients with high serum KL-6 level was poor, whereas serum SP-D level was not related to patients’ survival. Univariate analysis revealed that there was a trend towards an association between serum KL-6 level and patients’ prognosis but this did not reach statistical significance. This might be due to small number of study patients. In conclusion, there is a possibility that serum KL-6 level is a prognostic marker regardless of the presence of IP.