title: Endogenous interleukin 6 levels in patients with metastatic malignant melanoma: correlation with tumor burden.
abstract: The involvement of interleukin (IL-) 6 in malignant disease has been investigated in a variety of different malignancies. To evaluate whether serum IL-6 is a useful disease marker in metastatic malignant melanoma (MMM), we studied the time course of endogenous IL-6 secretion in 41 patients treated with cisplatinum, IL-2, and IFN-alpha. Furthermore, the relationship of endogenous IL-6 concentrations to the tumor burden and/or the clinical response was also evaluated. The baseline serum IL-6 levels were significantly higher in patients with MMM than in the control group (P = 0.002). When tumor burden was taken into consideration, we found that IL-6 levels were higher in patients with high tumor burden than in patients with low tumor burden. During treatment in the whole patient population, a higher serum IL-6 level was observed in nonresponding as compared to responding patients at days 7 (P = 0.0005), 21 (P = 0.002), and 35 (P = 0.009). The follow-up of serum IL-6 in patients with MMM according to the tumor burden and clinical response demonstrated that: (a) IL-6 levels were significantly higher at days 7 and 21 in patients with high tumor burden as compared to those with low tumor burden; and (b) IL-6 levels remain significantly higher in nonresponding patients as compared to responding patients regardless of the tumor burden. From these results, we can conclude that endogenous IL-6 may play a role in the failure of IL-2 therapy in such patients, since the very early IL-6 increase is correlated with the tumor mass and nonresponse to biochemotherapy. Therefore, it seems that the early detection of endogenous IL-6 may represent valuable information for monitoring the response to biochemotherapy in patients with MMM.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of the Medical Oncology Department, Salpetrière Hospital, 47 boulevard de l'Hopital, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mouawad
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Benhammouda
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rixe
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Antoine
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weil
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Khayat
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soubrane
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000556:secondary*; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6