Bordbar Elahe, Malekzadeh Mahyar, Ardekani Mehdi Taghipour Fard, Doroudchi Mehrnoosh, Ghaderi Abbas
Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012;13(10):5307-12. doi: 10.7314/apjcp.2012.13.10.5307.
Breast cancer cells and tumor stroma produce different cytokines and soluble factors. Cytokines, while playing crucial roles in immune responses to tumors, also favour tumor growth and progression. IL-7 and G-CSF are two cytokines that may exert influences on the pathophysiology of breast cancer.
Sera were collected from 136 females with breast cancer before receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The control group comprised of 60 healthy age-matched females without any acute or chronic diseases with no family history of breast cancer. Serum levels of IL-7 and G-CSF were measured by commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.
While there was no significant difference in the level of G-CSF between patients (92.81 ± 594.54 pg/ml) and controls (0.00 pg/ml), G-CSF level in sera of patients with advanced stages of breast cancer was elevated compared to early stages (p=0.0001). Moreover, the highest level of G-CSF was seen in patients with N3 phase tumors (p=0.0001). IL-7 was slightly but not significantly higher in the control group (0.04 ± 0.11 pg/ml) in comparison with patients (0.02 ± 0.10 pg/ml). Interestingly, a significant increase in the level of IL-7 in patients with skin involvement was observed (p=0.001).
Our results showed an elevation of G-CSF in sera of patients with advanced stages of tumor, while IL-7 elevation correlated with skin involvement of breast cancer. IL-7 can be produced by keratinocytes in skin tissue and may be involved in the pathologic establishment of metastatic tumor cells in skin.
乳腺癌细胞和肿瘤基质会产生不同的细胞因子和可溶性因子。细胞因子在肿瘤免疫反应中发挥关键作用的同时，也有利于肿瘤生长和进展。白细胞介素-7（IL-7）和粒细胞集落刺激因子（G-CSF）是两种可能对乳腺癌病理生理学产生影响的细胞因子。
收集136例接受化疗或放疗前的女性乳腺癌患者的血清。对照组由60名年龄匹配的健康女性组成，她们没有任何急慢性疾病，也没有乳腺癌家族史。采用商业酶联免疫吸附测定法检测血清中IL-7和G-CSF的水平。
患者（92.81±594.54 pg/ml）和对照组（0.00 pg/ml）的G-CSF水平无显著差异，但晚期乳腺癌患者血清中的G-CSF水平高于早期患者（p = 0.0001）。此外，N3期肿瘤患者的G-CSF水平最高（p = 0.0001）。与患者（0.02±0.10 pg/ml）相比，对照组的IL-7水平略高，但无显著差异（0.04±0.11 pg/ml）。有趣的是，观察到皮肤受累患者的IL-7水平显著升高（p = 0.001）。
我们的结果显示，肿瘤晚期患者血清中的G-CSF水平升高，而IL-7升高与乳腺癌皮肤受累相关。IL-7可由皮肤组织中的角质形成细胞产生，可能参与皮肤转移肿瘤细胞的病理形成。
