Evaluation of Transforming Growth Factor-Beta 1 (TGFβ1) Levels in Cases with Multiple Myeloma: Case-Control Study among Iraqis

Abstract

Background: The expansion of Multiple myeloma cells (MM) is regulated by cellular cytokines, including TGFβ1, which is suggested recently as the main growth factor. It was the purpose of this study to determine serum TGFβ1 levels in MM patients and to seek a correlation with tumor stages.

Materials and Methods: This comparative case-control study involved 55 MM patients, which were diagnosed by specialist hematologists. The treated group included (26 stages II and 16 stages III), and the newly diagnosed MM group included (6 stages II and 7 stages III), as well as 25 healthy individuals as controls. The measurements of TGFβ1 were done by a specific ELISA kit. SPSS was the software applied for statistical analysis. ROC curve was tested to predict MM patients from the healthy subjects, and stage II from stage III, with a p-value < 0.05% as significant.

Results: The mean ages of the total included subjects were 60.1±0.7 years (range 45-80 years). The mean serum TGFβ1 levels were 409.9±63 (range 13.5-4497.3). The gender revealed non-significant variations in the distribution of all the study variables. The levels of TGFβ1 were significantly higher in control subjects compared to the MM patients (p-0.001). There was a better ability of lower TGFβ1 levels to differentiate between stage 3 from stage 2 MM patients by the ROC curve analyses: AUC0.723, 95%CI 0.587–0.859, sensitivity 0.784, specificity 0.662, and p-0.005.

Conclusion: The MM patients exhibited significantly lower values of TGFβ1 compared to healthy controls (p-0.001), and a better ability of lower TGFβ1 levels to differentiate between stage 3 from stage 2 MM patients.