In Patients with Colorectal Cancer, Preoperative Serum Interleukin-6 Level and Granulocyte/Lymphocyte Ratio Are Clinically Relevant Biomarkers of Long-Term Cancer Progression

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of the serum inflammatory cytokines and the blood granulocytes/lymphocytes (G/L) ratio in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods: Forty-six patients underwent surgery for colorectal cancer. The G/L ratio and serum inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) were measured before surgery and correlated with the Tumour Node Metastasis classification and overall survival. Results: Serum IL-6 in T3-4, N1-2, M1 cases and cancer stages III-IV sub-groups was significantly higher than in Tis-2, N0, M0 and cancer stages 0-II sub-groups. The G/L ratio, serum M-CSF and TNF-α in T3-4 cases were significantly higher than in Tis-2 cases. Furthermore, the G/L ratio and serum IL-6 showed a significant inverse correlation with the overall survival, while the G/L ratio showed a significant positive correlation with serum IL-6, TNF-α and M-CSF. Multivariate analysis showed that the serum IL-6 level and G/L ratio were independent risk factors for poor prognosis. Conclusions: In this investigation, a pre-operative high level of serum IL-6 and the G/L ratio appeared to be significant predictive factors for cancer progression and poor prognosis. Accordingly, these variables might be clinically relevant biomarkers in patients with colorectal cancer.

Association between TNF-α-308G>A and -238G>A gene polymorphisms and TNF-α serum levels in Mexican colorectal cancer patients

“…Other studies have described similar results (Shimazaki et al, 2013;Stanilov et al, 2014). However, there was no association between TNF-α levels and -308G>A and -238G>A polymorphism haplotypes in Mexican CRC patients and controls.…”

A Novel IL6 Antibody Sensitizes Multiple Tumor Types to Chemotherapy Including Trastuzumab-Resistant Tumors

“…Elevated levels of IL6 are associated with poor prognosis in cancers of the lung, colon, kidney, bladder, and others (28)(29)(30). Thus, therapeutics targeting IL6 and IL6 signaling components are also being tested in clinical trials for cancer.…”

Circulating Lymphocytes as Predictors of Sensitivity to Preoperative Chemoradiotherapy in Rectal Cancer Cases

“…Several lines of evidence have indicated that peripheral blood lymphocytes level has a close relationship with the malignancy. Now, it is clear that peripheral blood lymphocytes level or its ratios are not only correlate with survival of patients with cancers such as glioblastoma multiforme, renal cell carcinoma, colorectal, uterine cervix and breast cancers (Riesco et al, 1970;Bambury et al, 2013;Fox et al, 2013;Shimazaki et al, 2013), but also with tumor recurrence in bladder cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (O'Toole and Unsgaard, 1979;Kuss et al, 2004). Galon et al (2012) demonstrated that T-cell infiltrates could be considered as a stronger independent prognostic factor than the conventional clinicopathological factors such as tumor size, depth of infiltration, tumor differentiation, or the nodal status.…”