Abstract:Objective To investigate the clinical significance of macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC- 1) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods A total of 94 patients with stage Ⅲ band stage Ⅳ NSCLC, 78 patients with benign pulmonary diseases, and 70 healthy subjects admitted to the hospital from January 2013 to January 2015 were included in this study. The MIC-1 level was detected by ELISA. Patients with NSCLC received targeted therapy. Results Serum level of MIC-1 was higher significantly in the NSCLC group compared with benign group and control group, while MIC-1 was upregulated in the benign group compared with control group (P < 0.05). MIC-1 was closely associated with TNM stages (P < 0.05) while no significant relationship was observed among age, gender, targeted therapy and EGFR gene mutation in NSCLCgroup (P > 0.05). MIC-1 levels in patients receiving treatments for 3 months and 5 months decreased compared with those before treatment and receiving treatment for 1 month (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in MIC-1 levels between groups at 3 months, 5 months and 7 months prior to treatment (P < 0.05). Treatment effective rate was 32.98% with 5 months of treatments. The treatment effective rate in patients with mutation was higher than that of wild type (64.86% vs 12.28%, P < 0.05). The MIC-1 level in treatment group with positive response was significantly lower than that in group with negative response (P < 0.05). ROC analysis showed that the median survival time (MST) was 17.9 months. With 1,390 pg/ml as the cut-off value, patients were divided into the low group (MIC-1 ≤ 1,390 pg/ml group, n = 59) and high group (MIC-1 > 1,390 pg/ml group, n = 35). Patients in high group experienced significant higher 3-year survival rate compared to low group (33.90% vs 14.29%, P < 0.05). Cox analysis showed that TNM stage, EGFR gene mutation and MIC-1 level were independent risk factors for MST of patients with NSCLC. Conclusion The serum MIC-1 level is correlated to TNM stages, and the effectiveness of targeted therapy, and MIC-1 may be a prognostic biomarker in patients with stage Ⅲ b-stage Ⅳ NSCLC