Cancer Letters

Cancer Letters

Volume 244, Issue 1, 28 November 2006, Pages 76-78
Cancer Letters

Interleukin-6 level in patients with colorectal cancer

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2005.12.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) contributes to a multitude of physiological and pathophysiological processes. We sought to determine the level of the IL-6 in serum and tumoral tissue of patients with staging of the tumor and whether serum IL-6 level in patients with colorectal cancer correlate with tumoral tissue level of it. Serum and tumoral tissue specimen (stored at −80 °C until the biochemical determination) from colorectal cancer (n=50) were examined for IL-6.we determined the IL-6 Level in serum and tumoral tissue supernatant with Instant ELISA kit. A significant association between serum IL-6 level and staging of the tumor (P<0.001), tumoral tissue IL-6 level (r=0.95, P<0.001) in the patients was founded. IL-6 amount of the serum and tumoral tissue in the patients with colorectal cancer correlate significantly with the staging of the tumor and with each other.

Introduction

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) contributes to a multitude of physiological and pathophysiological processes [1], [2]. IL-6 is produced by many different cell types. The main sources in vivo are stimulated monocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. Macrophages, T-cells and B-lymphocytes,granulocytes, smooth muscle cells, eosinophils, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, mast cells, glial cells, and keratinocytes also produce IL-6 after stimulation. [1], [3]. Overexpression of IL-6 has been implicated in the pathology of a number of diseases, including multiple myeloma, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Alzheimer disease and post-menopausal osteoporosis [2], [4]. Many research suggest that IL-6 produced by the tumor cells acts as a growth factor [5], [6].

Furthermore, it has been reported that human colorectal cancer cells produce IL-6 and the serum levels of IL-6 are elevated in patients with colorectal cancer [7]. The purpose of this study was therefore to test the hypothesis that blood level of IL-6 is associated with the amount of IL-6 in tumour and with tumour stages.

Section snippets

Methods

Fifty patients with colorectal cancer, (M/F=28/22), ages 35–77 years (57.26±14.6 years), were examined in the present study. No patients had evidence of active infection or inflammatory disease, and none were under any treatment for colorectal cancer at the time of examination. The tumor was stage 4 in 8 patients, stage 3 in 23 patients, stage 2 in 8 patients, and stage 1 in 11 patients.

Blood for the measurement of serum IL-6 was collected into nonheparinized tubes, and serum was separated

Statistical analysis

The results presented as the mean ± the standard deviation (SD), and were subjected to one-way analysis of variance. A paired t-test also was used to analyze intra group differences. Correlation tables were analyzed by the fisher exact probability test or a chi-square test. A value of P<0.01 was considered significant.

Results

The mean serum level of IL-6 in all patients with colorectal cancer was 5.49± 2.49 pg/ml and in patients with stages 1, 2, 3, and 4 colorectal cancer was 2.75± 0.2, 4.14± 0.51, 5.86± 1.68, and 9.56± 0.99 pg/ml (Fig. 1).

The mean tumor level of IL-6 in all patients with colorectal cancer was 402.93± 230.19 pg/ml and in patients with stages 1, 2, 3, and 4 colorectal cancer was 230.88± 49.02, 282.5± 64.15, 394.16± 197.03, and 785.16± 105.19 pg/ml (Fig. 2).

The serum IL-6 level was correlated

Discussion

IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine that plays a significant role in the growth and differentiation of cells [8]. Several studies have addressed the role of IL-6 in tumor cell growth, but its exact role remains varied and unclear. It appears that the effect of IL-6 on tumor cell growth may depend on the tumor cell type [9], [10], [11], [12].

Human tumor cell lines, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, lung carcinoma, and also colorectal cancer, have been reported to produce IL-6 [7]

References (21)

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    A study involving 23 types of cancer found that patients had an average of 6.95 pg/mL of IL-6 in serum (Lippitz and Harris, 2016). In colorectal cancer specifically, this number was 5.49 ± 2.49 pg/mL (Esfandi et al., 2006), while head and neck cancer patients had a median IL-6 level of 19.5 pg/mL (Riedel et al., 2005). Finally, patients had 2.45 pg/mL and 3.11 pg/mL of serum IL-6 in atypical and melancholic major depression, respectively (Karlović et al., 2012).

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