Salivary Cytokines in patients with Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) treated with Radiotherapy

Abstract

BackgroundHead and Neck cancer (HNC) is the sixth most common cancer in the world. The 5-year survival rate depends on early diagnosis and appropriate therapy. Typically, late diagnosis requires not only surgical intervention, but also radiotherapy treatment combined or not with chemotherapy. Ionizing radiation is known to increase the expression of a number of cytokines involved in inflammation, wound healing and toxicity areas. Salivary cytokines have promising features to be used as biomarkers for disease screening and outcome prediction in this malignancy. The aim of this article is to analyze the role of salivary inflammatory response elements in HNC patients treated with radiotherapy, their modulation and association with the treatment outcome.Material and MethodsA bibliographical search was performed on Pubmed, Cochrane and Embase using the following keywords: cytokines, saliva, head and neck cancer, radiotherapy. The cut-off point for the research were scientific papers published over the last 10 years. After a two-step selection process, 15 articles were identified and subjected to review.ResultsRadiotherapy treatment was shown to influence a number of salivary cytokines. A trend towards a growth of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, and TNF-α levels was observed and it correlated with the irradiation dose.ConclusionsThe analysis of salivary cytokines could be a useful biomarker for predicting radiotherapy outcome in HNC. However, large-scale investigations are required to validate the use of these cytokines in predicting and diagnosing HNC, as well as evaluating the response to the treatment. Key words:Cytokines, saliva, head and neck cancer, radiotherapy.

Cytokines Explored in Saliva and Tears from Radiated Cancer Patients Correlate with Clinical Manifestations, Influencing Important Immunoregulatory Cellular Pathways

“…Similarly, CCL2, also referred to as monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), recruits monocytes, memory T cells, and dendritic cells to the sites of inflammation [36,37], as indicated in the CD40/CD40L cellular pathway identified in our study. MCP-1 has previously been detected in the saliva of head and neck cancer patients [19] soon after radiation therapy, and it remained significantly elevated in our analysis at a later time point. Meanwhile, CXCL1, expressed by macrophages, in addition to neutrophils and epithelial cells, plays a role in the processes of angiogenesis, tumorigenesis, inflammation, and wound healing [38,39].…”

“…This could be explained by the timing of the sample collection. In order to explore the late effects of radiotherapy, we recruited patients for cytokine analyses at least 6 months after treatment, while cytokine screening in previous reports had been conducted already 1–3 weeks after radiotherapy [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Therefore, the upregulated cytokines discovered in the present study could be part of a biological reaction to radiotherapy that may be associated with late effects, as indicated by the immunoregulatory and apoptotic cellular pathways identified [ 20 ].…”

“…Previous studies have described several salivary cytokines detected 1-3 weeks after radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. The studies utilised both multiplex bead-based immunoassays and ELISA to identify pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, MCP-1, and TNF-α.…”

Chemokine-Cytokine Networks in the Head and Neck Tumor Microenvironment

“…Typically, delay in diagnosing HNSCC requires surgical treatment with the combination of radio- or chemotherapy. In this context, salivary cytokine can serve as diagnostic biomarker and predict CRT outcome in HNSCC [ 224 ]. Furthermore, elevated levels of IL-6, IL-8, VEGF, HGF, and GRO-1 found in HNSCC patients with poor survival indicate that targeting this pathway could be of therapeutic significance [ 225 ].…”

Emprego De Biomarcadores Metabólicos Salivares Para O Rastreamento Do Câncer Bucal

“…Lee L (2019) 8 Chiamulera M (2021) 9 Babiuch K (2020) 10 Principe S (2019) 11 Bossi P (2016) 12 Aqrawi L (2020) 13 Saxena S (2017) 14 ID 1012 5…”