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Clinical significance of preoperative serum concentrations of interleukin-6 as a prognostic marker in patients with esophageal cancer

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Abstract

Background

Although the clinical outcome of esophageal cancer has recently improved, the relapse rate remains high for all disease stages. At present, there is no diagnostic method to predict the long-term outcome for esophageal cancer. In this study, we evaluated serum preoperative proinflammatory cytokine levels and investigated the correlation between preoperative interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-8 levels and survival of patients with esophageal cancer.

Methods

Between 2008 and 2015, we evaluated preoperative serum cytokine levels in 122 patients who underwent esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. Serum IL-6 and IL-8 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. We investigated the relationship between serum cytokine levels and the response to chemotherapy and survival.

Results

The preoperative IL-6 levels were significantly associated with shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS, p = 0.001) and overall survival (OS, p = 0.001) after esophagectomy. Higher IL-8 levels were significantly associated with RFS (p = 0.018). In the multivariate analysis, age, preoperative chemotherapy, lymph node metastasis, serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and serum IL-6 levels (hazard ratio (HR), 2.888; p = 0.049) were significantly independent prognostic factors of RFS. Additionally, age, pathological stage, and serum IL-6 levels (HR, 3.247; p = 0.027) were shown to be significantly independent prognostic factors of OS. Serum IL-6 levels were significantly higher in the non-responder group (pathological response pGrade0 and pGrade1) after neoadjuvant therapy.

Conclusions

High preoperative serum IL-6 levels are associated with a poor response to chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy and poor prognosis after esophagectomy. Preoperative serum IL-6 levels may be a useful independent prognostic marker for esophageal cancer patients.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Yusuke Maeda, Satoru Matsuda, Akihiko Okamura, Kazumasa Fukuda, Rieko Nakamura, Koichi Suda, Norihito Wada, Hirofumi Kawakubo & Yuko Kitagawa

  2. Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Hamamatsu University, 1-20-1 Handayama, Higashi-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, 431-3192, Japan

    Hiroya Takeuchi

  3. School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, 582 Bunkyodaimidorimachi, Ebetsu-shi, Hokkaido, 069-8501, Japan

    Taku Miyasho

Authors
  1. Yusuke Maeda
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  2. Hiroya Takeuchi
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  3. Satoru Matsuda
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  4. Akihiko Okamura
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  5. Kazumasa Fukuda
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  7. Rieko Nakamura
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  8. Koichi Suda
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  9. Norihito Wada
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  10. Hirofumi Kawakubo
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  11. Yuko Kitagawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroya Takeuchi.

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Ethical Statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions. Informed consent or substitute for it was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Maeda, Y., Takeuchi, H., Matsuda, S. et al. Clinical significance of preoperative serum concentrations of interleukin-6 as a prognostic marker in patients with esophageal cancer. Esophagus 17, 279–288 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-019-00708-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-019-00708-6

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