Soluble factors related to proficient tumor-stroma cross-talk are detectable in plasma of primary lung cancer patients and may represent a valuable complementary diagnostic tool to discriminate lung cancer patients from healthy heavy-smokers individuals as shown for the SPARC protein.
In this review, we discuss the role of SPARC in lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis, as well as potential mechanisms by which it may contribute to the disease process in asthma and COPD.
We also studied possible genes downstream of RASSF1A in 16 primary non-small cell lung cancers and found that the expressions of SM22 and SPARC were significantly downregulated in RASSF1A-hypermethylated tumors.