Staining of interleukin-10 predicts clinical outcome in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

BACKGROUND Interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) has been implicated as an important modulator of lymphoid cells, and its sequence is homologous to an open reading frame in the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) genome. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a representative tumor related to EBV infection. METHODS The authors investigated the expression of IL‐10 in 21 primary NPCs by using an immunohistochemical approach to examine its prognostic significance. RESULTS IL‐10 staining was positive in 12 of 21 primary NPCs (57%). There was no association between IL‐10 expression and gender, tumor size, the occurrence of lymph node metastases, clinical stage, or recurrence. However, there was a significant difference in overall survival between the negative expression and positive expression of IL‐10 (P = 0.0348). Although 87.5% of the IL‐10 negative group survived for 5 years, only 15.6% of IL‐10 positive patients survived for that length of time by the Kaplan–Meier method. IL‐10 expression was significant as an independent prognostic indicator of overall survival by multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model (odds ratio, 26.64; P = 0.0019). CONCLUSIONS The results imply that expression of IL‐10 is a prognostic factor in patients with NPC and may prove valuable in selecting patients with NPC who are candidates for aggressive therapy. Cancer 1999;85:1439–45. © 1999 American Cancer Society.

Epstein-Barr Virus Zta-Induced Immunomodulators from Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Cells Upregulate Interleukin-10 Production from Monocytes

“…In a previous study of immunoglobulin Amediated EBV infection, GM-CSF expression in NPC cells is increased at the initial infection stage, where the viral lytic cycle may occur (40). On the other hand, in a previous study examining IL-10 expression in NPC biopsy specimens, IL-10 is not always detectable in tumor cells but is generally detectable among tumor-infiltrating mononuclear cells, which may include lymphocytes and monocytes (19). Even though the clues are very limited, our findings draw attention to the potential contribution of EBV reactivation to local immunosuppression of NPC.…”

“…The functional inactivation of immune cells in NPC tumors may be attributed to several suppressive mechanisms in the microenvironment, including IL-10, gelactin-9, and regu-latory T cells (33,36,61). Notably, IL-10 has been associated with poor prognosis of NPC, suggesting that it may blunt not only antivirus but also anticancer immune responses in the tumors (19).…”

Cutting Edge: IL-10-Producing CD4+ T Cells Mediate Tumor Rejection

“…Furthermore, murine plasmacytomas treated with antisense IL-10 are more immunogenic than the parental cell lines (18). IL-10 has been detected in biopsy specimens of human carcinomas and gliomas in association with more aggressive tumor growth and shorter survival times (19,20).…”

A pooled analysis of the IL-10-1082 A/G polymorphism and the nasopharyngeal carcinoma susceptibility

“…Increased serum levels of IL-10 have been reported in patients with head and neck carcinomas, including NPC [14][15][16]. Clinical evidence has also suggested that the expression of IL10 might influence treatment outcomes in NPC patients [17]. The human IL10 gene, composed of five exons and four introns, is mapped to chromosome 119 between 1q31 and 1q32, which displays three common polymorphisms in the gene promoter region: -1082 A/G (rsl800896), -819 T/C (rsl800871), and -592C/A (rsl800872).…”