Ma Yunfeng, Ren Yi, Dai Zhi-Jun, Wu Cai-Jun, Ji Yan-Hong, Xu Jiru
Department of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, China.
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Huai'an First People's Hospital, Huai'an, China.
Adv Clin Exp Med. 2017 May-Jun;26(3):421-426. doi: 10.17219/acem/62120.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Chinese women. Inflammation contributes to tumor progression and can be induced by excessive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). However, how their levels relate to the expression of estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) by the tumor has not been investigated.
The aim of the study is to more fully understand the significance of serum IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α in breast cancers with different ER, PR and HER2 status.
Preoperative serum samples were collected from 110 patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma and 30 healthy control subjects. IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Associations of cytokine levels with clinical tumor stage were evaluated, and correlations of serum cytokine levels with ER, PR and HER2 expression were determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Serum levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly higher in the subjects with ductal carcinoma than in the controls, and strongly correlated with clinical tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and ER and HER2 antigen expression (p < 0.05). TNF-α levels in stage III carcinoma patients were significantly higher than in the controls (p < 0.01) and were associated with lymph node metastasis (p < 0.01). A strong positive correlation was found between IL-8 and TNF-α levels in the cancer patients (p < 0.0001).
The study showed that IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α levels correlated with clinical disease stage and lymph node metastasis as well as with ER and HER2 antigen expression. Specifically, IL-6 and IL-8 seem to have significant potential as prognostic cancer biomarkers. Analyzing serum cytokine levels might help identify patients with a poor prognosis who may benefit from more aggressive disease management.
乳腺癌是中国女性中最常见的癌症。炎症促进肿瘤进展，可由促炎细胞因子如白细胞介素-6（IL-6）、白细胞介素-8（IL-8）和肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）的过度产生所诱导。然而，它们的水平与肿瘤雌激素受体（ER）、孕激素受体（PR）和人表皮生长因子受体2（HER2）表达之间的关系尚未得到研究。
本研究旨在更全面地了解血清IL-6、IL-8和TNF-α在不同ER、PR和HER2状态乳腺癌中的意义。
收集110例诊断为导管癌的患者及30例健康对照者的术前血清样本。采用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）法测定IL-6、IL-8和TNF-α水平。评估细胞因子水平与临床肿瘤分期的相关性，并使用Pearson相关系数确定血清细胞因子水平与ER、PR和HER2表达的相关性。
导管癌患者血清IL-6和IL-8水平显著高于对照组，且与临床肿瘤分期、淋巴结转移以及ER和HER2抗原表达密切相关（p<0.05）。III期癌患者的TNF-α水平显著高于对照组（p<0.01），并与淋巴结转移相关（p<0.01）。在癌症患者中，IL-8和TNF-α水平之间存在强正相关（p<0.0001）。
研究表明，IL-6、IL-8和TNF-α水平与临床疾病分期、淋巴结转移以及ER和HER2抗原表达相关。具体而言，IL-6和IL-8似乎具有作为癌症预后生物标志物的显著潜力。分析血清细胞因子水平可能有助于识别预后不良的患者，这些患者可能从更积极的疾病管理中获益。
