Murakami Saburo, Okubo Katsuhiko, Tsuji Yoshitaka, Sakata Hideto, Hamada Setsuo, Hirayama Renzo
Department of Surgery, Saitama Medical School, 38 Morohongo, Moroyama-machi, Iruma-gun, Saitama 350-0495, Japan.
Surg Today. 2004;34(12):1014-9. doi: 10.1007/s00595-004-2860-z.
To evaluate the immunological status of patients with gastric cancer before surgery, we investigated the relationship between serum interleukin-12 (IL-12) levels and clinicopathological factors.
We measured serum IL-12 levels in 127 patients with gastric cancer and 35 healthy controls, by a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using the Human IL-12 +p40 Immunoassay kit.
The serum IL-12 levels in the patients with gastric cancer were significantly higher than those of the healthy controls (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in disease stage or gross appearance among the cancer groups, but the serum IL-12 levels in patients with T4 disease were significantly lower than those in patients with T1, T2, or T3 (P < 0.01). There were no significant differences in serum IL-12 levels between patients with and those without lymph node, liver, or peritoneal metastasis. The serum IL-12 levels in patients with distant metastasis were significantly lower than those in patients without distant metastasis (P < 0.02). There were no significant differences in the serum IL-12 levels according to classification by histopathological findings. Analysis with the linear correlation coefficient showed no significant correlation between serum IL-12 and serum carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9, CA 72-4, alpha-fetoprotein, or immunosuppressive acidic protein. However, there was a significant relationship between serum IL-12 levels and soluble IL-2 receptor levels (r = 0.53, P < 0.01).
Serum IL-12 levels in patients with far-advanced gastric cancer were significantly lower than those in patients with less-advanced gastric cancer. This is because macrophages in patients with far-advanced cancer would be hectic and unable to produce sufficient IL-12.
为评估胃癌患者术前的免疫状态，我们研究了血清白细胞介素-12（IL-12）水平与临床病理因素之间的关系。
我们使用人IL-12 + p40免疫分析试剂盒，通过夹心酶联免疫吸附测定法，测量了127例胃癌患者和35名健康对照者的血清IL-12水平。
胃癌患者的血清IL-12水平显著高于健康对照者（P < 0.05）。癌症组之间在疾病分期或大体外观上无显著差异，但T4期疾病患者的血清IL-12水平显著低于T1、T2或T3期患者（P < 0.01）。有或无淋巴结、肝脏或腹膜转移的患者之间，血清IL-12水平无显著差异。远处转移患者的血清IL-12水平显著低于无远处转移的患者（P < 0.02）。根据组织病理学结果分类，血清IL-12水平无显著差异。线性相关系数分析显示，血清IL-12与血清癌胚抗原、糖类抗原（CA）19-9、CA 72-4、甲胎蛋白或免疫抑制酸性蛋白之间无显著相关性。然而，血清IL-12水平与可溶性IL-2受体水平之间存在显著关系（r = 0.53，P < 0.01）。
进展期胃癌患者的血清IL-12水平显著低于进展期较低的胃癌患者。这是因为进展期癌症患者的巨噬细胞会过度活跃，无法产生足够量的IL-12。
