Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul 17;12(7):e0181125.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181125. eCollection 2017.

High systemic IL-6 is associated with worse prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Estela Maria Silva  1 , Vânia Sammartino Mariano  1 , Paula Roberta Aguiar Pastrez  1 , Miguel Cordoba Pinto  2 , António Gil Castro  3   4 , Kari Juhani Syrjanen  5 , Adhemar Longatto-Filho  1   3   4   6
Affiliations

High systemic IL-6 is associated with worse prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Estela Maria Silva et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Characteristic cytokine patterns have been described in different cancer patients and they are related to their diagnosis, prognosis, prediction of treatment responses and survival. A panel of cytokines was evaluated in the plasma of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and healthy controls to investigate their profile and relationship with clinical characteristics and overall survival. The case-controlled cross-sectional study design recruited 77 patients with confirmed diagnosis of NSCLC (cases) and 91 healthy subjects (controls) aimed to examine peripheral pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, TNF and IFN-γ) by Cytometry Beads Arrays (CBA Flex) in. The cytokine IL-6 showed a statistically significant difference among groups with increased expression in the case group (p < 0.001). The correlation between the cytokines expression with patient's clinical characteristics variables revealed the cytokine IL-6 was found to be associated with gender, showing higher levels in male (p = 0.036), whereas IL-17A levels were associated with TNM stage, being higher in III-IV stages (p = 0.044). We observed worse overall survival for individuals with high levels of IL-6 when compared to those with low levels of this cytokine in 6, 12 and 24 months. Further studies of IL-6 levels in independent cohort could clarify the real role of IL-6 as an independent marker of prognostic of NSCLC.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: No author has any conflicts of interest. The Biohit Oyj affiliation does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Kaplan-Meier overall survival of NSCLC patients.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates by stratification of serum IL-6 concentration in NSCLC patients.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates by stratification of TNM stage in NSCLC patients.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates by stratification of degree of differentiation in NSCLC patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Siegel R, Ma J, Zou Z, Jemal A (2014) Cancer statistics, 2014. CA Cancer J Clin 64: 9–29. doi: 10.3322/caac.21208 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zheng M (2016) Classification and Pathology of Lung Cancer. Surg Oncol Clin N Am 25: 447–468. doi: 10.1016/j.soc.2016.02.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Reck M (2012) What future opportunities may immuno-oncology provide for improving the treatment of patients with lung cancer? Ann Oncol 23 Suppl 8: viii28–34. - PubMed
    1. Duan MC, Zhong XN, Liu GN, Wei JR (2014) The Treg/Th17 paradigm in lung cancer. J Immunol Res 2014: 730380 doi: 10.1155/2014/730380 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rangachari D, Brahmer JR (2013) Targeting the immune system in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. Curr Treat Options Oncol 14: 580–594. doi: 10.1007/s11864-013-0250-8 - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms