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. 2022 May 3:14:655-663.
doi: 10.2147/IJWH.S347740. eCollection 2022.

Serum IL-6 Level Predicts the Prognosis and Diagnosis in Cervical Cancer Patients

Chunyan Cai  1 , Xing Peng  1 , Yumei Zhang  1
Affiliations

Serum IL-6 Level Predicts the Prognosis and Diagnosis in Cervical Cancer Patients

Chunyan Cai et al. Int J Womens Health. .

Abstract

Background: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been reported to be associated with the prognosis of cancers. As for cervical cancer (CC), previous studies investigated the association between IL-6 expression in CC tumor tissue and CC prognosis; however, no studies assessed the effects of serum IL-6 levels on the survival of CC. This study aimed to explore the effects of serum IL-6 levels on prognosis in patients with CC.

Methods: In total, 327 patients with CC and 355 controls were recruited from this hospital from May 2015 to May 2016. Serum IL-6 levels were measured before treatment. The Kaplan-Meier method was utilized to estimate survival rates. The overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated. The univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify risk factors associated with the prognosis of CC.

Results: We found that the serum IL-6 level in the CC group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The diagnostic value of serum IL-6 level in detecting CC patients was moderate, and the specificity and sensitivity were 77.46% and 47.09%, respectively. Data suggested that the serum IL-6 level was significantly linked with the smoking status, FIGO stage, tumor size, treatment methods, and HPV infection. The univariate and multivariate analysis indicated that FIGO stage IIB-IIIC, lymph node metastasis, and high serum IL-6 levels were negatively associated with the OS and DFS in patients with CC.

Conclusion: Serum IL-6 has a moderate diagnostic ability for detecting CC and may be a potential CC biomarker. High serum IL-6 level is associated with adverse prognosis in patients with CC and could be a prognosis indicator for CC patients.

Keywords: cervical cancer; diagnosis; interleukin-6; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The receiver operating characteristic curve of IL-6 level for diagnosing cervical cancer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of 5-year overall survival rate between high IL-6 group and low IL-6 group (low group <5.30 pg/mL and high group ≥5.30 pg/mL).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of 5-year disease-free survival rate between high IL-6 group and low IL-6 group (low group <5.30 pg/mL and high group ≥5.30 pg/mL).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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