Interleukin levels and their potential association with venous thromboembolism and survival in cancer patients

Abstract

SummaryCytokines have been found to be elevated in cancer patients and have been associated with worse prognosis in single tumour entities. We investigated the association of eight different cytokines with venous thromboembolism (VTE) and prognosis in cancer patients. The Vienna Cancer and Thrombosis Study (CATS), a prospective study, includes patients with newly diagnosed tumour or disease progression. Patients with an overt infection are excluded. Study end-points are VTE, death, loss to follow-up or study completion. Interleukin (IL) serum levels were measured using the xMAP technology developed by Luminex. Among 726 included patients, no associations between IL levels and VTE were found, with the exception of a trend for IL-1β and IL-6 in pancreatic cancer. Elevated levels of IL-6 [as continuous variable per double increase hazard ratio (HR) = 1·07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1·027-1·114, P = 0·001, IL-8 (HR = 1·12, 95% CI = 1·062-1·170, P < 0·001) and IL-11 (HR = 1·37, 95% CI = 1·103-1·709, P = 0·005] were associated with worse survival. In subgroup analyses based on tumour type, colon carcinoma patients, who had higher IL-6 levels, showed a shorter survival (HR = 2·405, 95% CI = 1·252-4·618, P = 0·008). A significant association of elevated IL-10 levels with a decrease in survival (HR = 1·824, 95% CI = 1·098-3·031, P = 0·020) was seen among patients with lung cancer. No correlation between VTE and IL levels was found, but higher IL-6, IL-8 and IL-11 levels were associated with worse survival in cancer patients. Further, elevated IL-6 levels might be a prognostic marker in colorectal cancer and elevated IL-10 levels in lung cancer patients.

Venous thromboembolism, interleukin-6 and survival outcomes in patients with advanced ovarian clear cell carcinoma

“…In our study, those with VTE had significantly higher levels of IL-6 than those who did not have VTE, and this association has not been well studied in cancer patients. 26 In addition, VTE was associated with thrombocytosis (Table 2), which has recently been recognized in the oncology field. 27 Our findings also showed that elevated IL-6 is associated with thrombocytosis, and those with advanced-OCCC had the highest frequency of multiple-site VTE (DVE+PE; 11.3%) compared with the other groups.…”

Prognostic Impact of IL6 Genetic Variants in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Treated with Bevacizumab-Based Chemotherapy

“…In addition to carcinogenesis, IL-6 contributes to hemostasis 43,44 and vasculopathy 45,46 , and IL-6 genetic variants have been implicated in atherosclerosis 43,47 , hypertension 47 , and cancer-associated thromboembolism 48 . Accordingly, we explored whether IL-6 SNPs could predict bevacizumab toxicity (i.e.…”

Pre-treatment serum inflammatory cytokines as survival predictors of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving chemoradiotherapy

“…Visconti et al (31) demonstrated that elevated IL-6 and IL-10 levels appear to be independently associated with worse prognosis in terms of overall and disease-free survival in cancer patients. Reitter et al (32) reported that elevated levels of IL-6, IL-8 and IL-11 were associated with worse survival of cancer patients. Cheng et al (33) revealed that NPC patients who had high IL-8 levels had significantly shorter overall survival and disease-free survival.…”