Serum ferritin is elevated in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients and is associated with efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the expression levels of serum ferritin (SF) and investigate the correlation between SF expression levels and clinical characteristics as well as the efficacy to platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Materials And Methods: Electrochemiluminescence method was used to determine the expression levels of SF in the peripheral blood of 46 advanced NSCLC patients and 63 healthy subjects.

Results: The expression levels of SF in healthy subjects were significantly lower than those in patients with advanced NSCLC patients (t = -3.279,P = 0.001). There was a statistically significant difference between SF expression levels and distant metastasis, regional lymph node metastasis, respectively (P < 0.05). However, there was no correlation between SF expression levels and sex, age, eastern cooperative oncology group performance status, smoking history, pathological type, tumor location and tumor-node-metastasis stage (All P > 0.05). The overall response rate to platinum-based chemotherapy was 57.1% (12/21) in normal SF expression levels group, which was significantly higher than that was 28% (7/25) in high SF expression levels group (χ² = 3.998,P = 0.046).

Conclusions: SF may be a valuable blood marker for predicting the tumor progression and the efficacy of platinum-based therapies for advanced NSCLC patients.