RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Cachexia is an important problem in lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Some studies report an association between adipokines and cachexia. Our study aimed to investigate the association of three novel adipokines, resistin, visfatin, and chemerin, with lung cancer and COPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 30 patients with non-smallcell lung cancer, 30 patients with COPD, and 30 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Statistically significant weight loss was found in COPD and lung cancer groups compared with that in the control group (p<0.001). Among the biomarkers, only resistin levels were significantly higher in patients with cachexia than in patients without weight loss in all groups (p=0.006). Resistin level was significantly higher in patients with COPD (p=0.002). Visfatin level was significantly higher in the control group (p=0.001). We found that a higher biomass exposure resulted in a significant increase and decrease in resistin (p=0.007) and visfatin levels (p=0.001), respectively, in the patient groups. For all groups, no statistically significant relationship was found between chemerin levels and weight loss or other variables. RESULTS: No significant relationship was found between the biomarkers and lung cancer type, tumor stage, lymph node stage, and metastasis stage. There was no relationship between the biomarkers by tumor, node, and metastasis and COPD stages (p>0.05). We observed no findings strong enough to support the use of these molecules as markers of disease stage or cachexia. CONCLUSION: Resistin, visfatin, and chemerin cannot be used as potential biomarkers for lung cancer or COPD or for disease stage or cachexia.