Abstract
Aim-Background
Breast cancer is a problem of enormous magnitude. The response to chemotherapy is also variable in patients and the exact biochemical pathways responsible have not yet been identified. There is an urgent need to identify bio-markers that can assess response to standard chemotherapy. The aim of the study is to help in early identification of non-responders and subsequent initiation of individualized chemotherapy.
Methods
The study population comprised of 30 cases of locally advanced breast carcinoma and 30 healthy controls. IL-6 levels were measured by ELISA before the commencement of treatment. Standard Anthracycline-based chemotherapy (Cyclophophamide 500 mg/m2, Doxorubicin 50 mg/m2, 5-Fluorouracil 500 mg/m2) was given to all patients as 21 days cycle for three cycles. A p value <0.05 was considered significant.
Results
An inverse relationship between baseline level of serum IL-6 and response to neo-Adjuvant chemotherapy was demonstrated in our study, which was statistically significant. On Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis with IL-6 as variable and response to neo-adjuvant therapy as state, 90 pg/ml was derived as cut off value for IL-6 to predict response to chemotherapy. (Area under curve = 0.807, p value 0.007 under non parametric assumption with sensitivity and specificity of 78.9% and 72.7% respectively.
Conclusions
Pre-treatment serum IL-6 levels can be considered a good biomarker to predict response to chemotherapy.
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Mittal, P., Gupta, N. & Goswami, B. Serum IL-6 level as a predictor of response to neo-Adjuvant chemotherapy in patients of breast carcinoma. Hellenic J Surg 88, 306–310 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13126-016-0338-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13126-016-0338-2